By Mark Fields
Slick Heist Thriller Blows It in the Third Act
The set-up for Crime 101 seems so promising: a stellar cast, a story about a suave high-end thief and the dogged cop tracking him down, a glittering backdrop of the ultra-rich in the ritzier parts of Los Angeles. And for the first two-thirds of this slick new heist caper, it all clicks together like a familiar but still thrilling machine. No specific spoilers here, but the movie blows it in its ostensibly satisfying but utterly implausible resolution.
Chris Hemsworth plays Mike, a methodical, careful, and very successful thief of expensive objects like jewelry and art. After a string of crimes along the 101 corridor in LA, Mike hopes to exit the racket with one last dramatic score. That takes him into the orbit of Sharon (Halle Berry) a frustrated insurance broker for wealthy clients. Meanwhile, Lou (Mark Ruffalo), a disheveled cop with an unraveling personal life, is gluing together the pieces of the robbery puzzle and start to close in on Mike.
Unlike many other heist films that focus almost solely on the robberies themselves, Crime 101 gives each of these characters complicated, even messy back stories. And director/screenwriter Bart Layton keeps these three compelling and appealing characters circling around one another in a tense, well-paced drama. Layton cleverly sets up many of the transitions in the plot with intentional misdirections so that you think the scene is focused on one of the trio only to realize it’s now about someone else. This engaging technique draws ever stronger connections between them. This approach is further advanced by the likability of the three actors at the center of the story: Hemsworth, Berry, and Ruffalo.
Impossibly, the audience wants to see all three of them prevail in the end. Layton understands this dilemma for the viewer, and tries to make everyone happy in ways that ultimately defy credibility and also violates the integrity of the characters. What starts out as a strength of the film ends up becoming its weakest link.
Official Trailer
