Crime 101: Movie Review

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Nick Nolte
Director: Bart Layton

Crime 101’s desire to take seemingly disparate storylines and blend them into one proves to be a frustrating attempt in a film that’s slick and stylish, but somewhat disappointingly really has little under the hood.

Hemsworth is Mike, a driver for hire and solo criminal whose push for perfection helps him initiate a series of jewellery heists without consequence in Los Angeles. Ruffalo is dishevelled and disheartened detective Lou, whose theory that a lone wolf is acting is scoffed at by his colleagues and sees him roundly mocked. And on the outskirts of this is Halle Berry’s Sharon Coombs, an insurer whose role in an insurance company is fading due to the men in charge dismissing her as ageing out.

When one of Mike’s jobs goes awry and he narrowly escapes with his life, the sense of self-doubt puts him on a path to apparent destruction – especially as his handler (a grizzled Nolte) believes he’s no longer needed.

Director Bart Layton knows how to layer the tension on in large swathes of Crime 101 and despite a stellar cast, the intersecting story spends an inordinate amount of time wallowing in set-up before delivering a payoff that’s not entirely worthy of the journey itself.

While a wiry Keoghan adds a spruce of energy to the somewhat muted proceedings, the film never quite reaches full throttle, despite looking entirely polished and impressive. (Even a car chase sequence feels adequate and perfunctory, rather than brimming with edge-of-your-seat stakes.)

It may look slick and may deliver in patches, but Hemsworth’s more muted and oddly twitchy performance, along with an arc that feels like it stumbles when it needs to soar, means Crime 101’s overall feeling is one of frustration and style over substance.

Small character moments, such as the final section of the film offers, add much to what’s gone on – but while it’s solid enough, the fact it’s taken nigh on two hours to get to this stage does little to expel any niggling edges of growing annoyance. Ultimately Crime 101 promises much, but unfortunately delivers not nearly enough to justify its polished occasionally tense movie.