A Man, a Woman and a Bank

A lighthearted heist movie with a lot going for it. First of all, the chemistry between Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams is terrific. He plays criminal master mind Reese who's planning to break into a new bank, which is just being built in downtown Vancouver. While stealing the plans to the building he's accidentally photographed by Stacey (Adams). He looks her up, trying to get the negatives, and he falls in love. This puts a little bit of strain on his relationship with his partner in crime Norman, beautifully played by Paul Mazursky.

Almost everything in this film has a relaxed feel to it. Conflicts are mostly resolved rather quickly and the story just sort of breezes along, with beautiful Vancouver locations. There are a couple of suspenseful scenes, when Reese and Norman are nearly caught, but mostly this is not about the heist itself, but more about the people who perpetrate it. As a comedy it offers no outlandish gags, but there are a lot of wonderful scenes, most of them involving Norman being a nervous wreck or Adams being way too cute.

I thought it was a very pleasant surprise.