BY MARGARET A. McGURK
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Martin Q. Blank doesn't know it, but he's suffering an existential crisis.

In his distress, he seeks out a psychiatrist (Alan Arkin) who suggests a break from work might help.

Martin, who kills people for a living, doesn't exactly get the point, but thinks he might give it a try.

MOVIE REVIEW Grosse Pointe Blank ***1/2 (R; violence, language) John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Jeremy Piven, Joan Cusack, Alan Arkin. 107 minutes. At National Amusements, Danbarry Middletown.

First, however, he has a contract in Detroit. And since the job is almost next door to the site of his high school reunion, and since he's been dreaming about his teen sweetheart Debi (Minnie Driver), he figures, what the heck, why not drop by.

Thus does Grosse Pointe Blank present Martin with a chance to rethink his priorities, and the audience with a chance to savor one tangy black comedy.

John Cusack's straight-faced performance as the neurotic, love-stuck hit man is wickedly funny and engaging in his desperate effort to reconnect with normal human interests.

Among the bumps in Martin's road are a nearly departed mother (Barbara Harris), a convenience store where his childhood home once stood, and three or four other assassins on his trail. They include Dan Aykroyd, in a funny turn as a competitor trying to set up a trade association.

The screenplay, originally by Detroit native Tom Jankiewicz, was rewritten by Mr. Cusack and his longtime collaborators D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink, part of a Chicago theatrical gang that includes Jeremy Piven and Mr. Cusack's sister, Joan. (All of the above, plus assorted kith and kin, appear in the film.)

The result is a story line ripe with dialogue that flows with the loopy wit and veiled menace of a family feud.

The movie is directed by George Armitage (Miami Blues) at a smart pace that staggers only slightly in some of its leaps from cerebral to bloody.

All 10-year-reunions should feature songs as well-chosen as those on the movie's soundtrack, not to mention the original score by former Clash guitarist Joe Strummer.