Normal Life (1996) on Netflix
Chris Anderson loses his police job and turns to robbing banks to fund the life his wife Pam wants. Pam is drawn to the heists and asks to come along.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.3/102,705 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes70%
Trailer
Plot summary
Chris Anderson is a young police officer who falls for Pamela and marries her despite her drug and alcohol problems. The marriage is full of destructive fights and money trouble. Pam exploits his devotion, leaves him the chores, and asks for expensive things until the couple nears bankruptcy, and she shows no respect for his family, who are important to him. When trouble with another officer costs Chris his job, he begins robbing banks in secret to keep up her lifestyle. Pam finds the heists thrilling and insists on joining him. Together they rob enough banks to buy a house of their own.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Normal Life (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Normal Life is based on the real husband-and-wife bank robbers Jeffrey and Jill Erickson; when the FBI moved to capture Jeffrey, Jill led agents on a chase through 12 suburbs with a machine gun hanging from her van's window and died after a gunfight.- After test audiences expecting a Luke Perry movie like 90210 reacted badly, distributor New Line Cinema refused to release the film; once director John McNaughton complained in the press, it got a one-week run in New York and Los Angeles, then went to HBO.
SPOILER
Many of the film's locations were the actual places where the real events happened, including a bank that Jeffrey Erickson robbed; director John McNaughton said the parking lot where Pam gets shot is where they filmed that scene.- Director John McNaughton said the real robber behind the story was nicknamed the bearded bandit because he wore a fake beard and a Chicago Cubs hat to rob small banks of a few thousand dollars, and that Chicago treated the case as a joke.
