Opening in theaters on February 13th is the new crime thriller ‘Crime 101’, written and directed by Bart Layton (‘American Animals’) and starring Chris Hemsworth (‘Thor’), Halle Berry (‘X-Men’), Mark Ruffalo (‘The Avengers’), Barry Keoghan (‘Eternals’), Monica Barbaro (‘Top Gun: Maverick’), Corey Hawkins (‘Straight Outta Compton’), Jennifer Jason Leigh (‘The Hateful Eight’) and Nick Nolte (’48 Hrs.’).
snf2dfgJQQ3OtalPuYVKD7Related Article: Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry Talk New Crime Thriller ‘Crime 101’
Initial Thoughts
‘Crime 101’ really wants to be Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ (and maybe some of his ‘Thief’ as well). Not that there’s anything wrong with that; epic crime thrillers are few and far between these days, and writer-director Bart Layton’s 140-minute L.A.-based drama has a lot of the scope and a glittering cast to make a run at it.
Based on gritty genre writer Don Winslow’s 2020 novella of the same name, ‘Crime 101’ doesn’t quite hit the heights of Mann’s 31-year-old masterpiece – it’s patterned almost too closely on that film’s narrative, for one thing, and it takes far too long to set itself up and finally get to the good stuff. But when it does work – thanks to some terrific work from some of that cast – ‘Crime 101’ can be suspenseful and absorbing.
Story and Direction
A mysterious man named Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is committing a series of flawlessly executed heists – mainly of precious jewels — up and down the length of California’s 101 freeway, from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles. Careful not to harm a single person during his crimes, Davis is also lonely, isolated, and socially awkward, with his only goal to reach a certain sum of money and his past shrouded in shadows.
While most of the LAPD squad assigned to the robberies just wants to close them out, Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) sees a pattern in them and is convinced it’s one man, annoying his superiors. His investigation brings him into the orbit of Sharon Coombs (Halle Berry), a claims adjuster whose insurance firm handles the kind of high-end clients who are taking a hit from Davis’ heists.
When Davis targets another of Coombs’ clients for what he hopes is his final job, that puts Coombs on his radar as well – but unbeknownst to Davis, his own benefactor (Nick Nolte) has put a second operator on the job, a psychotic, violent man-child named Ormon (Barry Keoghan) who does not share Davis’ moral code or any hesitation to hurt and kill.
‘Crime 101,’ as with Winslow’s other works and the films that Layton emulates, walks the well-worn gray area of many a crime film where the lines between the criminals and the ‘good guys’ are often blurry and where thieves often have codes of honor that are tested to the breaking point by other forces. But a problem here that hampers ‘Crime 101’ is that it never creates a consistently rising sense of tension for a good portion of the film. Setup takes up a large chunk of its first half, and the narrative finds itself going down more than one blind alley.
There is more attention paid to character development, but only selectively, and often in ways that seem incongruous. But the movie does come to life in fits and starts, including a pulse-pounding car and motorcycle chase involving Davis and Ormon, some other scenes involving the latter, and almost all of the third act, as Davis, Lubesnick, Ormon and others are all drawn into Davis’ carefully calibrated plan. Layton also makes good use of real Los Angeles locations, from downtown to Malibu, effectively making the city very much a character itself, although Blanck Mass’ heavy-handed score, all synths and thunderous drums, works too hard to add extra gravitas.
Cast and Performances
Strangely enough, the weakest component of the all-star cast here may be its leading man. Hemsworth’s Davis is a curiously flat character – and while much of his background is intentionally left murky, there’s not enough for Hemsworth to work with, rendering him kind of a blank. Also unhelpful is his almost complete lack of chemistry with Berry and especially Monica Barbaro, who shows up in the Amy Brenneman role from ‘Heat’ – the love interest who changes the thief’s perspective – and brings her own considerable magnetism in spades, even in a typically underwritten and stock role.
Despite looking like he just came right from the ‘Task’ set to this film – his rumpled, exhausted cops are virtually indistinguishable – Mark Ruffalo brings his usual wounded dignity and innate decency to the role of Lou, who you can’t help but love thanks to his dogged determination and, uh, attempts at yoga (too bad Jennifer Jason Leigh is wasted completely and barely seen as his estranged wife).
The film’s MVPs, however, are Berry and Keoghan. The former is electric as a hard-working, quick-witted woman pushed to the brink by her obnoxious, sexist bosses, while the latter is genuinely frightening and unpredictable as the wild card psycho Ormon. Even though we’ve pretty much had enough Joker in recent Batman movies, Keoghan almost makes us want to see his cameoing Clown Prince of Crime from ‘The Batman’ show up again in Matt Reeves’ upcoming sequel.
Final Thoughts
Bart Layton definitely gets an ‘A’ for effort with ‘Crime 101’ – he really wants to make the kind of complex, morally ambivalent, tense, adult-oriented thriller that is harder to glimpse at the multiplex these days than an influencer staying off their phone for the entire length of a movie.
Yet Layton makes his melodrama almost too complicated; careful pruning of some subplots and sequences – he apparently likes one slowly rotating opening shot of the title motorway so much that he does it again later in the film – might have jacked up the pace and added more urgency to the proceedings. Still, while ‘Crime 101’ is not the epic crime drama the director-writer may have had in mind, it still manages to generate enough heat of its own to keep one interested.
‘Crime 101’ receives a score of 70 out of 100.
What is the plot of ‘Crime 101’?
As an elusive jewel thief (Chris Hemsworth) mystifies police with a string of heists along the 101 freeway in Los Angeles, his path crosses that of a disillusioned insurance broker (Halle Berry) who is facing her own crossroads. As the thief plans one final heist, a relentless detective (Mark Ruffalo) is closing in, raising the stakes even higher for all three.
Who is in the cast of ‘Crime 101’?
- Chris Hemsworth as Mike Davis
- Halle Berry as Sharon Colvin
- Mark Ruffalo as Detective Lou Lubesnick
- Barry Keoghan as Ormon
- Monica Barbaro as Maya
- Corey Hawkins as Detective Tillman
- Jennifer Jason Leigh as Angie
- Nick Nolte as Money
- Tate Donovan as Steven Monroe
- Payman Maadi as Sammy Kassem
- Drew Powell as Det. Townsend
- Matthew Del Negro as Police Captain Stewart
List of Halle Berry Movies:
- ‘Jungle Fever‘ (1991)
- ‘The Last Boy Scout‘ (1991)
- ‘Boomerang‘ (1992)
- ‘The Program‘ (1993)
- ‘The Flintstones‘ (1994)
- ‘Executive Decision‘ (1996)
- ‘Bulworth‘ (1998)
- ‘X-Men‘ (2000)
- ‘Swordfish‘ (2001)
- ‘Monster’s Ball‘ (2001)
- ‘Die Another Day‘ (2002)
- ‘X2‘ (2003)
- ‘Catwoman‘ (2004)
- ‘X-Men: The Last Stand‘ (2006)
- ‘Cloud Atlas‘ (2012)
- ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past‘ (2014)
- ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle‘ (2017)
- ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum‘ (2019)
- ‘Moonfall‘ (2022)
- ‘The Union‘ (2024)
- ‘Never Let Go‘ (2024)
- ‘Crime 101‘ (2026)
