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The flick is under a hybrid genre: a fine cocktail of romance, comedy and action. Though the propagandas from the film distributor focus on its action and thriller elements, the film comes with a very deep theme of family affairs, making romance as the predominant genre. Action and thriller are merely the dressing, being subordinate to the theme of life in marriage.

Director Doug Liman (directing "The Bourne Identity", 2002), exploits flashbacks in building the structure of the narrative. The interview mode and dialogues at the beginning sequence serve as a preliminary concentrated lead-in to the personalities of the 2 key characters and the sources of their disequilibrium. This opening by using a self diagnosis of married life disseminates a strong message to the audience that the story is about family affairs.

Liman exhibits strong story causality and fast pacing in story progression as he does in "The Bourne Identity". The narrative is unrestricted (audience know more than the characters do in the story) at the beginning but restricted down the line near the denouement (watch and find it out).

The film depicts an unconscious problem endemic to married life: apathy to each other and deep dwelling in work/career risk the family. As dialogued in the enlightening epigram, most couples mistakenly take "marriage as a job and a plan to be executed". Lack of trust and open communication destroys a family even in calm water whereas their presence unites and saves a family from challenges in white water rapid. It is this theme that reigns the entire story. Analogies and metaphors, especially the two long table dinner sequences, are adopted throughout the story. Though many sequences are sceptically humorous and dramatized, they are connotative and sardonic of the reality.

Liman adopts several narrative parallels in portraying the couple in their respective encounters in the first half of the film. He also manipulates costume to connote the psychological relations of the couple: contrasted colours of black and white for their inconsonance and harmonious / same colours for their equilibrium (again watch and find it out). The visual motif of the logo "Home Made" (at the fire exchange sequence at the end) is used to complement the theme of family affairs in the film.

Music is used in consonance with the romantic spectrum of the story. Liman's artifice in manufacturing exciting visuals of action, fire-exchanges and car chasing is fully displayed. The epilogue witnesses the Matrix-like choreography of actors and camera movement. Chinese subtitles are adapted / localized for Hong Kong viewers (e.g., Park'N Shop, TVB).

The film demonstrates a polarized degree of reality in the story elements: family affairs are close to reality but the thriller elements are super-real. A common pertinent family problem is portrayed in a comedic outlook with its serious theme kept intact. This cocktail is further enriched to bring the complete titillation to the audience in the presence of the handsome Pitt and the sexy Jolie.

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