I was warned that Cate didn't appear until about 35 minutes in but I turned out to be okay with that. Unlike some other reviews I've read that thought the beginning was a bit slow, I disagree. I like Bruce Willis and I thought Billy Bob Thornton was very entertaining in this. And I actually thought the beginning scenes moved pretty well. They introduced the characters perfectly right off the bat - Terry is a bit of a hypochondriac and not your usual prison inmate. Joe is a tough guy and together they are unlikely friends. The first bank robbery happens not too far in and Joe's personality as a ladies' man is nicely shown. It's also revealed that Terry is more of a thinker and Joe is more impulsive. We also see that they're not going to be your average 'bad guys' with the way they treat the teens in their first 'sleepover house.' And finally, the idea of how they will continue to rob banks is laid out. All in all, a truly great set up.
I also like what they did in the beginning by showing a glimpse of the final robbery that happens at the end of the film. I like the playing with time and also that it sets the stakes higher (as Barry Levinson mentioned in the extra features). This however is where I also find the first flaw in the film. Right away they mention this woman, Kate Wheeler, and she seems like a big deal to them. But she's not introduced to us as an audience until about 30 minutes later. Although I love the way she's introduced (more on that in a bit) I think she should have been brought into it a bit sooner. Like, maybe they could have shown her shopping for that night's dinner. Just a small glimpse.
I almost forgot to comment about our introduction to Harvey. The first scene with him is a very nice set-up to what happens later in the film, but of course we don't know that yet. Troy Garity did a really nice job with this oddball, sort of slow, but very endearing character. And who would have ever guessed he was Jane Fonda's son! (I found this tidbit extra interesting given Jane's recent comments about Cate in 'Streetcar.' I wonder if this film is the link that brought them together as friends?)
I liked the scenes with the first family they stay with, the Millers. The dinner scene was very well executed - and I think it's so cute that the two little girls are Bruce Willis' own daughters. I agree with the deleted scenes that were cut from this. They weren't necessary and would've made it too long. Nothing extra was revealed with them that we needed to see - and it made the bank manager's character more of a big deal than he needed to be. Definitely think this was a good edit.
The final image we see after the second bank robbery (first sleepover robbery) is a huge sign that says, 'the beauty of color.' This is right before Cate comes on. First the lightbulb refrigerator shot when she's bathed in the most gorgeous blue light. Next the dancing in the kitchen scene. Cate - and the character of Kate Wheeler - bring color to the film - and to Terry and Joe.
The blue light bulb? That color is my favorite color in all the world. It's just breathtakingly beautiful. I actually just screen grabbed it from YouTube and made it my desktop image. And then after that, there's the color of her hair and her dress. Her hair is this amazing reddish orange and her dress that gorgeous turquoise. That's also probably my favorite color combination - blue and orange, they're complimentary colors. And the dancing? From the moment I saw it on YouTube, I've watched it dozens of times! She is so hilarious and gorgeous all wrapped into one.
The great thing about Cate and her comedic ability that is so well-displayed in this film, is that she can do both over the top - the dancing - and subtle... The nuances that she can bring to her facial expressions make her excel at both drama and comedy.
I loved the driving and singing to "Total Eclipse of the Heart!" I've always loved that song and now I will never be able to hear it again without smiling and thinking of Cate in this movie! The whole scene when she hits Terry and is driving him like a maniac - shear perfection. So funny, so well played. And the re-quotability of one-liners from this movie are so numerous, probably beginning in this scene...
Kate: "I'm feeling very fragile at the moment and I don't think I should be alone."
Terry: "You're insane."
Kate: "I'm unhappy - it's not the same thing!"
Along with the part about her being "mentally unbalanced to a spectacular degree." Again the blue in the cabin windows during dinner is so beautiful. Someone commented in the extra features about the cinematographer "painting with light." He really did a gorgeous job with this film.
The nod to 'It Happened One Night' was nice - when Joe hangs the sheet and says he saw it in a movie and it ended with a wedding. It's so sweet how excited she gets when she's realizing he knows "Total Eclipse" and they're going back and forth with the lyrics (I love how she says "in the dark" during this part - something about it). The chemistry between herself and Bruce in this scene is very good - and it's made all the more lovely when you learn in the extra features on the DVD that it was partly improvised. When the sheet falls, they both seemed genuinely surprised - I wonder how much of that was the actual moment they improvised, or was re-takes using the improvisation? If that makes any sense... I thought it was funny when she's making an effort to pull down the shades as they start to go at one another and the first one just falls completely off - ha. And look at those legs!
In the first bank robbery that Kate is present for her face is so sweet and she shows such excitement when the cops leave and then again when they go to switch cars.
Again with the beautiful blue at the beach. The whole scene is beautiful - Kate and Joe dancing. So simple, so happy, so innocent. There are just so many sweet, lovely little moments in this film.
I don't think the film would have worked as well as it does if not for the 3 main actors. There was perfect chemistry between C/Kate and both guys. They made a great trio. The way the script was written, yes there was something quirky and unique about Kate - but something had to be really special about her for both guys to want her so desperately. Cate brought that unidentifiable/indescribable quality to Kate that made you understand why each guy had to have her. Same with Bruce and Billy Bob - both characters were written well but another actor may not have brought the same specialness to them. Especially Billy Bob - he's so funny with the quirky hypochondriac-ness - I especially loved him in the scene right after the car crash. The other thing about Kate is that you never feel she's a victim, and I like that. Yes, she's unhappy, yes she's fragile - and she even is like "an iceberg waiting for the Titanic." But the whole time she's making her own choices. She starts out looking for someone to save her - "holding out for a hero" - but in the end it's really she herself who does the saving.
Back to the chemistry between the three. I thought the film did a nice job showing how Kate falls for both of the guys. And how her love for each of them changes them. Like with Joe - it's so cute when she tries on her first disguise and he goes, "Hey! What happened to Kate?!" (I love all her disguises - the Marilyn Monroe look of her first one - and the short black one that is like a foreshadowing to her look in "Indiana Jones"). And when they're driving beside each other right before the accident and she says she was afraid they'd lost them and Joe says, "You are so cute. You are really cute." After the car crash incident, when he goes to the car-swap location and she's not there - you can tell he's a little heartbroken. Later, when he's alone and punching the punching bag - you feel sorry for him. You really get the feeling that Kate has changed his ladies' man ways.
I thought the scene with Terry and Kate when they fall for each other at the Flamingo Hotel (more color: pink) was especially perfect too. When Kate is talking about where Joe must be at the moment she makes such a sweet sad face when she decides, "He's not alone." I absolutely love the whole part when she's describing her husband's kisses - I think it's great how they incorporated Cate's actual popping jaw into the scene. (Another quirky speech thing in this scene - I love the way she says "I don't" after she says she must seem to know a lot about love. Cate does a tremendous job with the accent in the film but I do think it's really endearing that a few times throughout she almost slips back into Aussie a little...dinner at the cabin when she says, "so um," - when she asks Joe "how does it end?" about the movie with the hanging sheet, when she says "alone?" in the hotel scene with Terry).
Back to the "my husband's a terrible kisser" part - there's actually a running thing about kisses in the film that I didn't really notice the first time around. Joe tells Terry that the special thing about her is that she has lots of saliva and that he's never been kissed the way she kisses him before. At the Flamingo, the women there for the convention are singing "It's In Hiss Kiss." The whole description of Kate's husband's kisses. And then at the lighthouse when Joe asks Terry "I was right about Kate's kisses wasn't I?"
It's so hilarious when Terry starts sneezing and Kate asks "should I scare you?" And then when she goes at him with the pillow, ha. One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Terry is describing his fears and Kate says, "I think it's better to feel too much than feel too little."
In the scene at the lighthouse, again you have Cate's beautiful hair color against the blue, blue ocean. It's so sweet the way these two criminals have been reduced to being jealous and fighting over this woman. Again, I don't think any other actress could have made that believable. And as an audience, you love her with both of them. It's hard to chose and you understand why she can't. When they showed her husband on TV, I was afraid he was going to say something '"sweet" to make her second guess herself and want to go home. I was glad when he didn't, because even though he was an ass and hurt her, it was endearing the way both Joe and Terry stepped in immediately to tell her she'd found where she belonged - with them.
I love the fireworks on the beach scene both visually and with the simplicity of how happy they are. I think that's what the heart of this movie was about for me - about living a full life, letting go and being free and happy. Minus the illegal activity of course! Kate singing "Walk On By" - hilarious. I have a feeling that was some really good acting by Cate - I have a hard time believing she sings that badly in real life. She was trained in piano so she knows pitch and being on key - and hearing her sing briefly in Streetcar, I know she can sound better than that. But that makes the off-key rendition Kate gives us so much more impressive!
The failed robbery scene was very well done - both written and filmed. The way the whole thing almost goes terribly wrong but then ends up fine, even though they got out of it without any money. The whole thing about the burning feathers and brain tumor was very funny - I liked how the director or set designer - or a combination of people - made it so it looked like even the statue in the bank was looking at Terry like he was nuts.
(Another neat little stylistic nuance I noticed was the use of mirrors - an effect that's used a few times throughout. In the scene with the kid Phil and then shotgun as Joe sneaks up on him. The tri-effect of the 3 mirrors in the bathroom when Kate goes in to brush her teeth. The mirror reflection of her and Joe in bed right afterwards had me thinking I was seeing a mistake at first, that they'd swapped sides. Then I realized it had been a mirror. Another reflection, but not a mirror - the use of the binoculars painting/sign reflected into the glass of the drive-up at the bank so it framed Terry's head in a circle.)
The bar scene is another favorite. Back with that beautiful blue outside again. I loved finding out in the features that it was really daytime when the scene was filmed. Kate is very quirky and adorable here - first of all, she just randomly eats a sugar packet! I love how she is utterly thrown for a loop when Terry asks her to run away with him - the way she orders the drinks as she rushes off to the ladies' room was priceless. The irony of "Just the Two of Us" playing during the scene when Terry and Joe are fighting over Kate was a nice touch. The dancing was hilarious - Terry flopping around on the floor like a dying fish!
Then it all comes to a head when Kate clues Terry in to the fact that Joe has been playing him. And Kate decides that she's responsible for them being at each other's throats. "What if we only have one big love? I mean I know this one's a little bigger..." and "You know why I can't choose? Because together you make up the perfect man." It all goes back to them being the perfect trio. I think the reason why it wasn't working at that moment is because they hadn't figured out how to handle their unconventional relationship...Plus they had the added stress of the bank robbing. What brings the two friends back together is the fact that they realize they both love Kate and they have to get her back. They are so adorable on the phone trying to convince her.
The first time I watched the movie, when I saw Kate go to the police, I really thought she'd turned them in. I was going, "No, Kate what are you doing?!" I really had thought they were going to die in the final robbery. Her face when they started shooting was the first thing that clued me in that something was up. Then I remembered back to Harvey's first scene and thought, "Oh let them be squibs!" I was so relieved and delighted when they were revealed in the ambulance. I wonder a little about Kate's fainting... Was it to distract? Or was she really that unnerved by seeing such a bloody scene ever though she knew it was fake? All in all, I thought this whole last heist was very "Ocean's Eleven"esque. It definitely had me along for the ride and I thought it was a brilliant concept and twist, so well written.
The first time watching the ending/credits I thought it was going to be the three of them getting married... You never know! Of course the three together would be a complicated concept and not a relationship I could imagine myself in. But hey, never say never. I thought Cate's twist on the alternate ending in the special features was great - having Kate be pregnant. It would have left you wondering whose baby it was and how a child would have worked in their unique relationship. I can understand the taboo quality of that being the reason why it ultimately found it's way to the cutting room floor. But I wonder if that was the only reason it didn't make the cut.
All in all, a movie I know I will enjoy over and over - and I cannot wait to share it with people. I need to be able to quote it in everyday life and have people know what I am referring to!
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