The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery (1999)

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery is one of those just below middlin' productions that are the hallmark of cable TV. You know the ones I mean. They've all got a somewhat known actor in one of the main roles, are often based at least loosely on a true event and all too frequently suck you in by never being bad enough to make changing channels seem worthwhile. In this one, Brooke Shields gives just a good enough performance to keep hanging on through the sub-mediocre rest of the movie. Every once in a great while, this kind of film can reward you by doing something interesting in the second half or pulling off a snappy ending. That doesn't happen here.Cyndee Lafrance and Frank Syler (Brooke Shields and Dylan Walsh) are no-longer-young lovers in Woodville, Texas. She's the sort of Southern belle who's been in training her whole life to be a kept woman and he's the poor working shmuck who's convinced himself he has to keep her. To satisfy their desires to keep and be kept, they hatch a plan to rob the bank where Cyndee works and then sneak the money out of the country to the Cayman Islands. Cyndee and Frank are the sort of criminal masterminds that think they can buy a big house in the suburbs with their ill gotten gains, never considering how they're going to explain their new found wealth to their friends, neighbors or the IRS. So, it's no surprise that shortly after the bank robbery, an FBI agent named Royce (Rip Torn) zeroes in on Cyndee and Frank as suspects.The crime is about as complicated as a game of Tic Tac Toe and the investigation is about as involved as playing hide and go seek with one of those 700 pound shut in's whose fat flaps have to be washed by other people. Perhaps realizing that, these filmmakers throw in a passel of minor characters who may have been modeled on folks from the real bank robbery this movie is based on, but they all should have been eliminated. They're all poorly written, not much better performed and contribute nothing to the story that couldn't have been done in either a smarter or funnier way. While watching The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery, I couldn't help feel like I was seeing something intended for an audience that dropped out of school in the 9th grade. It's that unsubtle and direct. There's also this wildly out of place ominous music that crops up on the soundtrack whenever the film tries to generate a little tension, but it's so baldly manipulative and arbitrary that it works more like a laugh track.But Brooke Shields gives a performance that makes you understand what the phrase "high maintenance woman" means and why some women get away with being like that. Dylan Walsh is okay. He does appear to be playing this story about 15 degrees more serious than anyone else in the cast. Rip Torn is…well, Rip Torn. His role isn't even well enough developed to make it as a punch line, so there's not much else he could be.The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery isn't any good at all, but honestly? I've seen so many films sooooooo much worse than this, I can't help but grade it on a curve. Watching this movie didn't make me feel like I was slapped in the face with a carp or sodomized with an electric toothbrush. It didn't leave me writing around in my chair, desperate for it to be over, and it never made me want to throw something at the TV. If that's not damning something with faint praise, I don't know what is.

This is one of the few films where the characters have accents that don't sound phony. And that is not all that is in good order with this charmer. A variety of portrayals characterizing southern personality types is funny in itself. The plot is very simple and places more responsibility on acting and integration of other film making elements to create a valid viewing experience. From the sound and music to clothing and sets, it all fits. While there is nothing unpredictable about the Almost Perfect Bank Robbery, nothing is offensive either. A good example of what can be done without a large cast and production crew to create a first class picture. I loved it and wish it was a little longer so I could enjoy it more.

Endearing, fast-paced offspring of Raising Arizona (1987) and "actual events", this jinxed comedy debuted on US tv during the dog days of summer when everyone I know was still on vacation. Please be home the next time it's aired.Filmed several years earlier at a moment in history when it would've been hyped as a Brooke Shields/Rip Torn vehicle, "The Almost Perfect Bank Robbery" will one day be known as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dylan Walsh's commanding performance.A catchy score, richly-detailed comic touches in every scene, great attention to the peculiar supporting cast (at least five of whom were huge fun to watch in Radioland Murders), and the genial spoofing of our fondness for mall openings and "Wheel of Fortune"--none of the above would've kept me glued to the tube if it weren't for the adhesive that Dylan Walsh's performance applied to all that silliness.He created a character SO earnest and SO focused (in perfect contrast to his scatterbrained sweetheart) that purely in sympathy I HAD to take the movie as seriously as he took his caper. While the rest of the cast diverts our attention with comic vignettes, all the suspense, all the credibility, and our only hold on this runaway train of a plot--it's all to be found on Walsh's face and in his body language. As the pressure builds, he lets us see his confidence begin to crumble, just a little at a time, while laboring to hide his feelings from everyone else.Brooke Shields's lie-detector scene will make you laugh out loud (good acting, great writing), but Walsh's lie-detector scene will make you sweat. Does any actor since Peter Lorre do pure anxiety better than Dylan Walsh?The director, who clearly enjoys drawing our attention to so many visual details, was right to comment that his movie was "almost" perfect; no movie is perfect if it can't manage a scene in a car without yanking the rear-view mirror. I HATE that! We've overcome the difficulties of ceilings and wall-to-wall carpeting, but in this age of Industrial Light & Magic, why oh why is it still so hard to show us the rear-view mirror?

Some interesting film and editing techniques for a TV movie. Probably would have had more impact if originally broadcast in '96 as intended. The wackiness gets a little tiring at times, but the fresh approach makes up for it. Quite a good job by Shields. It's hard at first not to be aware that it's "Brooke Shields," but her growth as an actress and her seemingly natural flare for comedy allows you to eventually just enjoy her character. She seemed to be having a blast. I laughed out loud a couple of times. Worth at least one viewing.