Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:02 - Released 10/12/01
BANDITS
Rated PG-13 - Running Time: 2:02 - Released 10/12/01
From director Barry Levinson comes Bandits, a thoroughly
enjoyable romantic caper comedy about a pair of "odd couple"
bank robbers whose long but tumultuous friendship is threatened
when they both fall in love with their willing but emotionally
unbalanced female hostage. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton,
and Cate Blanchett as the members of this uncomfortable and crime-enhanced
love triangle, and they all give engaging performances, imbuing
their quirky characters with all manner of psychological issues
uncommon in traditional crime stories. Also responsible for the
film's success is writer Harley Peyton, whose choice to start
at the end and use flashbacks to tell the story, carefully giving
us only certain details along the way, leads to a clever and immensely
satisfying twist ending. Peyton, whose past screenplays have been
criticized for being overcomplicated (Keys to Tulsa), has
apparently learned how to simplify, because Bandits works
as a well-rounded, character-driven story with a minimum of excess
fat.
We first find our heroes, fiery and recklessly impulsive Joe
Blake (Willis) and intelligent OCD sufferer and hypochondriac
Terry Collins (Thornton), a.k.a. the "sleepover bandits,"
in the midst of a badly deteriorating raid on the Alamo Bank in
Los Angeles, which, as it turns out, is the last job they'll ever
do. Although they have succeeded many times before and become
nationally famous for their polite demeanor and their unconventional
habit of spending the night at the bank manager's home before
each robbery, this one's not going well at all. With the LAPD
and SWAT teams accumulating outside the building and a successful
escape looking more and more unlikely, they begin bickering about
each other's role in their downfall, and specifically about whose
decision it was to let Kate (Blanchett) join the team. It is Kate,
you see, who turned them in to the cops.
At this point we leave the scene and begin learning the boys'
history, both through flashbacks and by seeing bits of a nationally
syndicated interview they gave the night before the ill-fated
Alamo robbery. We see first their daring escape from prison, their
joint fantasy of retiring to Acapulco to open a night club, and
their decision to "sleep over" before each robbery and
force the manager to let them in the bank before it opens, avoiding
the complications caused by the presence of employees and customers.
After a few such jobs, they begin to achieve local notoriety.
But then they meet Kate. A depressed woman trapped in a loveless
marriage, Kate is accidentally abducted by Terry and is forced
to stay with the bandits for one night at their hideout. Recognizing
them and becoming enthralled by the danger of the situation, she
soon falls in love with both men, each for different reasons.
However, her involvement as a sort of modern-day Patty Hearst,
and the continuing coverage of the TV news show Criminals At
Large, elevates the bandits' fame to national standing, which
puts a serious hamper on their ability to do their job.
These three actors are all remarkably enjoyable in their roles, with Willis essentially playing straight to Thornton's and Blanchett's neuroses; each of them is developed with enough depth to be funny characters without giving the film the sense of a full-blown comedy. The three have a tendency to ground each other, resulting in a peculiarly elegant chemistry. Also noticeable is the surprisingly nice camera work by two-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti (L.A. Confidential, The Insider). While Bandits doesn't have the level of character Levinson achieved in his debut, 1982's Diner, it will still serve.
Get it? ****