Two’s Company Three’s a Crime

Joe Blake (Bruce Willis) and Terry Collins (Billy Bob Thornton) are bank robbers, fugitives hoping a final string of scores will finance their South-of-the-Border retirement dream. Irresistible Joe and his hypochondriac partner Terry become "The Sleepover Bandits", the most famous thieves in the country, cutting a swath from Oregon through California and leaving terrified bankers, bad disguises and an adoring public in their wake.

Their gimmick: Take the bank manager and his family hostage the night before a heist, have dinner and sleep over, then go into the bank with him in the morning before business hours. No break-in necessary. No complicated surprise midday raid. It works like a charm.

Things get more complicated when they meet Kate Wheeler (Cate Blanchett), an ordinary housewife sick of her disappointing life–who happens to run into Terry with her car. Kate joins the bandits on their cross-country spree, and eventually she steals something too–their hearts. Both guys fall in love with Kate, and Kate starts to feel it, too. Joe and Terry are far from ideal on their own, but together they make up the perfect man...

When the subject of Bandits’ cast comes up, director Barry Levinson says, "There are a number of surprises in this film. I don’t think I’ve seen Billy Bob this way before, and I’ve certainly never seen Cate Blanchett playing this kind of character. As for Bruce, it’s not that he hasn’t done a lot of comedic or romantic pieces, but I think the fact that it’s comedic and romantic yet also a tough character is going to be appealing. It’s a good combination."

Of Bruce Willis’ character, screenwriter Harley Peyton says, "Joe is someone who knows that he always does the right thing. He doesn’t have much self-awareness and he’s not given to a great deal of reflection: he’s certainly not someone who thinks a great deal. He’s the handsome action hero. He’s in love with women in the aggregate and goes through this incredible awakening when he meets the right girl for the first time."

As for Billy Bob Thornton, "Thornton’s Terry is the exact opposite of Willis’ Joe," adds Peyton. "If Joe doesn’t think things through, Terry thinks them through to a neurotic extent. The world is always a puzzle that he’s trying to solve, and he rarely solves it to his satisfaction. That’s why he’s a bundle of phobias."

"This script," says Thornton, an Academy Award winning screenwriter in his own right, "was one I wish I had written. My first thought was ‘What a perfect part to play and what a perfect movie to be in.’

"Sometimes when you read a script," he says, "you see the words on the page and you think, ‘Wow, this is pretty broad.’ But this is a very realistic movie. There’s a lot of hilarity in this script, but everything is plausible. Sometimes we’ll do a scene and I’ll think, ‘How are we going to pull this one off?’ Then because these characters are just regular people, it’s funny by playing it absolutely straight."

Thornton is also an accomplished director, but he was pleased to have Levinson in the director’s chair. "What makes Barry such a wonderful director," says Thornton, "is that he’s a big fan of the actors. He just loves to get in there with you. I think what makes a director good is somebody who feels like he’s in the scene with you, like he’s one of the guys around the table listening and enjoying what’s going on in the scene.

"Although I’ve directed films myself," he continues, "I don’t think of myself as Barry’s peer. Rather, he’s a model for me. I’m always amazed that he seems to be having such a good time. He keeps the set fun. He also has a real understanding of comic timing and an amazing sense of humor."

Frustrated with her husband and tired of a life unfulfilled, Kate Wheeler is the housewife who comes between the leading men. Once she enters their lives, Kate becomes a woman the guys just can’t shake. "It’s a tough role," says Peyton. "Given the decision she makes about the two men, we had to be very careful who the actress was. If Kate’s choice is about sexual appetite, the movie falls apart. It has to be a very eccentric decision made by someone who is very innocent at heart."

Kate is one of those people who hasn’t found what she’s looking for and doesn’t really know what she’s missing until she’s found it. Director Levinson knew who he wanted to fill such a complicated role. He wanted Cate Blanchett, who Levinson calls the "premiere actress of her generation".

"Bandits was one of those laugh-out-loud scripts," says Blanchett. "And once I knew who was cast as Joe and Terry, I couldn’t imagine anyone else playing those roles. You just knew that with those two actors, the film was going to be bigger and even more than what it was on the page."

Blanchett agrees that good comedy is reality-based. "Anything that makes me laugh has to be grounded in truth. Even if it’s hyper-real, as most absurd things are, it still has to have a grain of truth in it. That’s what Barry does so well. People tend to label things either drama or comedy. Barry has his own genre, which is incredibly funny but also incredibly poignant. He explores the depth and breadth of every scene and exploits its comic potential."

Like the rest of cast, Blanchett also loved working with Levinson. "Working with Barry is very comfortable because he’s such a good audience. In the beginning we had a bit of a language problem, and I thought it was because he’s from Baltimore and I’m from Sydney. It turned out it’s just that he’s got his own very particular language and his own particular take on things. And it’s hilarious."

About her character, Blanchett says, "Kate Wheeler comes into the story by sheer accident. She literary crashes into the piece, which is a great way to arrive. Kate’s problem is that her fantasy life is more engaging and more exciting than her real life. She’s compromised her way into a very small corner of the world and she’s just desperate to break out.

"I think Kate has always fantasized about what it would be to live on the outskirts," Blanchett continues. "She forms a relationship with these two men, which most of us would find incredibly confusing, but for her it seems most clear. For me the atmosphere of the film is that first bloom of love...except then it blooms a second time.

"Eventually," concludes Blanchett, "Kate finds more than she’s looking for, which is always exciting. As each page in the story turns for her, she’s taken to a place that she could never imagine. Even the ending for her is a surprise. I think it’s a surprise for all of them."

The fourth member of the Bandits’ gang is Joe’s young cousin, Harvey J. Pollard, played by Troy Garity. Pollard dreams of moving to Hollywood and becoming a famous stuntman, but in the meantime is recruited by Joe as the gang’s front man.

In casting Garity, Levinson says, "I saw an audition tape and thought Troy had the most unpredictable quality and a certain physicality. Just the way he moves his hands and deals with things gives him an interesting essence. Troy is truly unique, and we tried to utilize that in every which way we could."

Of his character, Garity says, "He’s a hopeless romantic, a hero trying to come out of his shell. I based Pollard on a combination of my mother’s golden retriever and Clint Eastwood. I used the dog because he has a strong loyalty to his family, and Clint Eastwood because Pollard really wants to be a larger-than-life hero."

Pollard’s world is shaken as well when Kate enters the picture. "She begins to usurp his position," Garity says, "and he begins to feel slighted. He kind of becomes a jealous girlfriend."

Of the film as a whole, Garity says, "Basically, I think of Bandits as a character-driven social disorder drama. There’s Billy Bob playing a chronic hypochondriac, Cate’s character is slightly bipolar and Bruce’s Joe has infidelity and anger management issues. Then there’s me with the undying love for anyone who will listen to me. It’s interesting. It’s a bouillabaisse."

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Bandits opens in Metro manila Theaters on March 20.