Crime 101: A Review

CRIME 101

Crime 101 might mislead people into thinking that it is more action-packed than it ultimately is. 

Gentleman jewelry thief Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) has everything in his heists planned to the millisecond. He takes care never to harm anyone and leave no physical evidence, including DNA. His latest heist where he robs two men transporting a cache of diamonds has a near-miss when one of them pulls a gun and grazes Davis. He tells his fence Money (Nick Nolte) that he won't be pulling another heist, probably to recover from the shock of his near-miss.

Money appears to go along with that. However, he opts to bring in Ormon (Barry Keoghan), a young and reckless up-and-coming thief, to pull the aborted heist. Ormon is volatile, angry and undisciplined. He also harms people in the robbery. This puts a damper on a longstanding theory from Detective Lou (Mark Ruffalo). While the rest of the LAPD dismisses his idea, Lou is convinced that various thefts are from one person. The physical assault in the latest heist does not fit the pattern.

Something that does not fit the pattern is how insurance broker Sharon (Halle Berry) keeps getting pushed aside by her employer for others, mostly men, who have less experience and time with the company. Her latest efforts to land a big client, shady billionaire Monroe (Tate Donavan) are floundering. Davis hires someone to find information on Sharon, whom he thinks can help him in one last heist. He also is starting to see Maya (Monica Barbaro) who ran into the back of his car. 

The various threads connecting Lou, Sharon, Mike and Ormon all meet at the lavish wedding Monroe has set up for himself. He will give the wedding guests expensive watches and diamonds. He will also have millions of dollars in ready cash. Various disguises and deceptions take place for everyone to get into Monroe's hotel room. Who will make it out alive? Who will get ahead of everyone else?

Crime 101 runs a very lengthy two hours and twenty minutes. This is surprising in that Crime 101 is based on a novella by Don Winslow. One would think that a novella would not have so much material as to require something of this length. I wonder, never having read the Winslow novella, if screenwriter/director Don Layton added more to the final product. 

I think that Crime 101 might have benefitted from shortening the runtime. The subplots of Davis' romance and Lou's marriage troubles might have been trimmed. I would not necessarily advocate to remove them entirely. After all, Lou met Sharon through the yoga class, which he would not have taken up had he not been forced to move out. However, we also had a surprisingly long section where Lou's fellow cops faked the presence of a gun to justify a fellow officer shooting a jewel thief. We also had long scenes involving Sharon and Monroe, Sharon and Davis, Davis and Money, Davis and Ormon and so on.

I think one of my big issues with Crime 101 is that most scenes went on too long. I understand what Crime 101 was going for. It seemed to want to bring in elements of Pulp Fiction, Drive and Heat into it. The film is not entirely unsuccessful in that endeavor. It just seemed to me that far too many scenes dragged. 

Here is one of the complaints about Crime 101 has merit. I think there were people who thought that Crime 101 would have more action. This is a fair idea given that Crime 101 involves jewel theft. However, I think a lot of Crime 101 felt a bit more cerebral and philosophical. That is not necessarily, again, a bad thing. It just felt as if it were slightly out of place in a movie that could have used a bit more action.

Crime 101 is filled with talented performers. They did mostly well. The continuing efforts to push Chris Hemsworth as an actor or action star continue to meet resistance. One has to give Hemsworth credit in that here his Australian accent was not as prominent as it usually is. Perhaps he has been in the United States long enough to pick up how American English sounds and attempt a good approximation. One could still pick up a bit of his native Aussie tones, however. It makes Mike's backstory a bit hard to accept. 

I will have to give him credit in that Hemsworth is playing slightly against type. Davis is not a man of action. He is more a man of thought, someone who is methodical and mostly calm in his various heists. When he is not calm, he is often more agitated than angry. 

That agitation is handled by Barry Keoghan as the live-wire Ormon. I think Keoghan went slightly overboard in showing Orman to be a loose cannon. There seemed to be something exaggerated, almost cartoonish, about his efforts to play tough and crazed. Keoghan came across as someone trying too hard to play crazed, intense and dangerous. He might have done better trying to play Lou, though it would make it look odder. Ruffalo was a standout as Lou, weary but dogged. He was somewhere in the middle of Hemsworth's cool detachment and Keoghan's wild intensity. Halle Berry too was in good form as Sharon. This is a woman who struggles against the sexism and ageism around her. This motivates, in part, her actions. You can see the frustration of waiting for a promotion to partner that she accepts will not be forthcoming.

Monica Barbaro as Mike's love interest and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lou's estranged wife Angie seemed lost in the shuffle. They are more plot devices than characters. I will give them credit in that they did what they could. I figure Nick Nolte could have been a bigger part of things. However, I think he was there for two to three scenes and always felt as if he were in an earlier draft that got put into the final film. 

Crime 101 has a Michael Mann feel with its cool California manner and visual style. I was reminded of Manhunter while watching drive (minus the serial killer). The focus on the city streets and Blanck Mass' electronic score also add to the sense that Crime 101 drew inspiration from Mann's body of work. 

Crime 101 was not bad. It could have been better if it were shorter. It is a bit slow, which weakened the film to me. I was reminded of George Lucas' primary direction on Star Wars. Crime 101 would have done better had it been "faster and more intense".

DECISION: C+