The professional thief is Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth), a meticulous planner whose jobs never lead to anyone being hurt and are so well executed that nobody even has any idea they are all the work of one man. Nobody that is, except for Mark Ruffalo's Detective Lou Lubesnick, who is determined to catch the "101 Robber" even though his obsession is starting to lead to him being ostracised in the precinct. Both characters come into contact with high value insurance broker Sharon (Halle Berry) as Mike plans a big score and Lou joins the dots in an attempt to track him down. A potential fly in the ointment for all of them is Barry Keoghan as Ormon, a far more violent thief who has his eye on Mike's big job.
Director Bart Layton says he was inspired to make the film by his complicated relationship with the city of LA. It is a place of opportunity but whenever he returned to his native England after spending time in the City of Angels, he would be self conscious about the car he drove and preoccupied with how others perceived him. He does an outstanding job of capturing that juxtaposition on film, with gorgeous sunsets and classic cars illuminating the screen one minute and conversations about aspiration taking place in front of rows of homeless people's tents the next. To use a tired phrase, the city is very much a major "character" in the movie and the protagonists are defined and driven by their relationships to it much more than their relationships to each other.
Crime 101 never gets too bogged down in subtext though. It isn't here to say anything profound on its themes, it just uses them as the foundation on which to build a quality crime caper. Layton is a director more known for his documentary work and he marries that sense of grounded realism to real cinematic flair. Everything is crisp and easy for the eye to follow, even as the camera does something interesting every time the action picks up. Whether it's panning round a speeding car or sitting atop Barry Keoghan's bobbing head as he weaves through traffic on his bike, the viewer is thrust into every scene. The Blank Mass soundtrack runs the gamut from gritty to chill and complements the on screen vibe perfectly. On top of that, we have a bunch of real movie star performances.
The trailers very much sold the idea of Chris Hemsworth looking suave in a suit but he does much more than that. Cool and composed in work mode, we see a different side to Mike when he is trying to be a real person. Decidedly awkward in his attempts to romance Monica Barbaro's Maya, its a side of Hemsworth we haven't really seen before, and it keeps the character sympathetic, especially as we realise the other players work with people who are far worse than the jewellery thief.
Sharon's employers for instance, in addition to overlooking her work due to her being a woman, are high end insurers who will do anything to avoid actually paying out. Like Hemsworth, Berry does a good job of showing the contrast between her pristine professional facade and the underlying vulnerability which drives such people's need to be seen as successful.
Lou is almost the inverse of the other two, his department cares far more about the numbers than actually upholding justice but he himself appears unbothered by how he is perceived. Shrugging off the ridicule of colleagues, driving an ancient car and sporting constant bed-head, he is genuinely more interested in doing the job than being flash, although even he dreams of owning a Mustang. Nobody serves the charismatic deadbeat look quite like Mark Ruffalo.
Barry Keoghan buzzes around the periphery of the story like a hornet, disrupting the calm waters with his nervous energy. He is very much a side character, almost nothing more than a plot device, but the film has a completely different energy anytime he is on screen. The same can be said of Nick Nolte, who brings authoritative menace in the fleeting moments he is on screen.
If there is a knock to be had against the film, the conclusion feels a little lightweight, with things wrapping up a bit too conveniently. Crime 101 has a fairly hefty runtime (2hrs 20 mins) and at the end of so much slow build tension some viewers might want a bit more consequence. It isn't bad, but it feels less mature than what came before.
Other than that, Crime 101 is pretty impeccable. It's a "grown-up" crime thriller in the vein of a Michael Mann movie or, going further back, the 60s/70s classics the much referenced Steve McQueen starred in. It doesn't quite stack up to the historical best but it stands head and shoulders above most contemporary competition in both ambition and execution.
8 houses on the beach out of 10.
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