BANDITS (Barry Levinson, 2001) R

Reviewed: June 6, 2002

Bandits' deceptively simple title belies its complexity. Director Barry Levinson and screenwriter Harley Peyton have crafted a delicious three-pronged genre attack-- an old-fashioned road-movie meets a wise crime film turned love story. Plus there are two marvelous leading performances (Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett), and a nicely restrained one (Bruce Willis, an underrated movie star who steps back and allows his incredibly talented costars to shine).

Oh, and did I mention it's a comedy?

Bandits is the kind of ultra-satisfying yet slick, plump-budget and star-driven entertainment Hollywood is increasingly incapable of churning out. There is nothing revelatory here (Peyton's script operates within a lot of clichés), just a fun-as-hell tour ride run by a bunch of first-rate guides.

Struggling to understand why Bandits wasn't better received upon release, I've noticed a lot of critics expressed confusion and contempt for individual scenes of Bandits working on their own, but failing to gel into a cohesive whole. They felt Levinson wasn't able to successfully juggle tones and the movie flounders about in its inability to decide exactly what it wants to be.

Still failing to comprehend those foolish complaints, I reiterate: Bandits is a romantic comedy. In interviews, Peyton has specifically stated this. He knows exactly what the movie he's written is and so should any viewer. Perhaps the confusion lies in the fact that critics are unaccustomed to adult comedies, an almost extinct sub-genre that use to be so popular in the heyday of Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. The last one I can think of that hit a home run was Wonder Boys, over two years ago. It also seems as if some critics are incapable of understanding that most great comedies include quieter scenes with some meaty weight to compliment their laughs.

Willis and Thornton play escaped convicts Joe Blake and Terry Collins, an odd-couple duo (Willis is the smooth, quiet, ladies man to Thornton's fast-talking, sweet hypochondriac) who initiate a bank-robbing crime spree. They gain national fame and recognition (think very lighthearted flipside to Natural Born Killers) under the moniker the "sleep-over bandits," because their modus operandi is to kidnap a bank's manager the night before a robbery and travel with the manager to his/her bank the next morning before it opens.

Sound ludicrous (as some critics have complained)? Well truth is stranger than fiction because Bandits is based on the real-life story of two men from the 70s who did exactly what I just described with enormous success (they were on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list) and complete nonviolence.

Blanchett plays Kate, a disgruntled housewife who goes on the lam with Joe and Terry, savoring the opportunity to leave the tedium of her lifeless marriage. Then she falls in love with them (first one, then the other). I can't sing Blanchett's praises enough. I've always been a huge fan of hers (well since I discovered her via her brilliant, Oscar-nominated work in Elizabeth), but sometimes you can't appreciate just how talented an actor is until you see what they can do without superb material. Blanchett brings so much life to Kate, so much energy and vitality and subtle etchings that I instantly fell in love with her. Her character's an awful singer, but Blanchett harnesses her character's lack of talent into a luminously appealing trait. She has such a deft touch throughout the pic, balancing tough and fragile and strung-out.

But as effusive as my praise for Blanchett is, that's nothing compared to how in awe I am of Billy Bob Thornton. The breadth of Thornton's acting in 2001 must be unparalleled in the history of cinema (in terms of performances during a single, given year). You watch The Man Who Wasn't There and you see silent screen acting at its pinnacle. You watch Monster's Ball and you see dramatic screen acting at its pinnacle. And then you watch Bandits and you see comedic screen acting at its pinnacle. There's nothing this guy can't do; forget the Oscar, he deserved some kind of National Medal of Honor for his 2001 work. Terry's escalating hypochondria allows Thornton to let lose, endlessly spouting very funny, anxious, mini-monologues. Thornton also proves himself adept at physical comedy, with his menagerie of tics, pratfalls and winces. Plus the various costumes Terry wears throughout the pic are fucking hilarious.

For proof of the near miracle cast chemistry, one needn't look further than the hotel room scene with Blanchett and Thornton alone or the bed divider/singing scene with Willis and Blanchett alone or the dancing scene towards the end in the empty bar with all three.

Levinson and his cinematographer (Dante Spinotti, easily one of the top three DPs in the business) consistently utilize their entire 2.35 widescreen frame, filling it with gorgeous locations (Bandits was filmed largely in Oregon and Northern California) and sublime color schemes. Peyton--who wrote some genius episodes of Twin Peaks--manages to insert little dabs of bizarre, unexpected flavor here and there to keep the proceedings fresh (i.e. the Debbie Day cosmetic convention, the fireworks, the toenail painting). His study and humorous script provides some killer quick exchanges ("She has a lot of saliva..."), the supporting characters are efficiently, sometimes even fully drawn (I'm thinking of the excellent Troy Garity as the bandits' slow witted driver) and doesn't shortchange the love story. Once Blanchett enters the pic at the beginning of Act II she's there to stay, and the bank-robbing fades deep into the backdrop. Peyton, Levinson and the actors handle the forthcoming love triangle with finesse, intelligence and even tenderness.

My only complaint then is one of structure. Peyton (or maybe it was Levinson in the editing room) bookends the movie with an obnoxious, typical framing device and peppers dumb snippets of an interview Joe and Terry did during their crime spree throughout the movie. This contributes to the occasional feeling that a few little story jumps are clumsy or abbreviated, but even if Bandits requires some suspension of disbelief, seen on its own terms it operates fairly within its sweet, fairytalish rules.

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