Crime 101 is a somewhat formulaic but very effective thriller about a jewel thief (Chris Hemsworth) chasing one last big score while a cop (Mark Ruffalo) and an insurance broker (Halle Berry) lay a series of narrative obstacles in his path, deliberately and otherwise.
Although the former documentarian isn’t afraid to let the excitement of a little bit of chaos shake up his commitment to order, his own drum-tight, often unpredictable script ensures that the one never overwhelms the other. His editors march to the same beat, their cutting swift and crisp but never rushed in the self-defeating interest of keeping the attention of easily distracted audiences.
Long-distance panoramas anthropomorphise the cityscape, its huge concrete molars biting through low clouds of smog and giving LA the appearance of a fantasy land. But its many streets cut through its morass of self-mythologising bullshit, peppered with a million speeding cars who probably each have their own stories to tell as they negotiate the city’s endless nooks and crannies.
Like the aforementioned smog, there’s a refreshing stink of satire pervading the atmosphere, whether it’s the mindless self-help tapes the hero listens to in his car, roadside billboards entreating rush hour drivers to live their best life, or the insurer trying not to chew her tongue off as she deals with her rich asshole clients dangling their baubles in her face.
The primary trio are introduced by way of their various morning routines (all of them up too early for the life-giving light of the sun), establishing character through their attitudes to a brand-new day. The cop recoils; the insurance broker faces it with weary resignation; the thief stares it down as another problem to be meticulously solved.Whether he means to or not, Chris Hemsworth makes a last-ditch audition for James Bond with his combination of ruthless professionalism, emotional discipline and impeccable tailoring. But he’s also giving a very interior performance, his eyes constantly fidgeting like he doesn’t want to get caught pretending to be a normal person.
Mark Ruffalo is in scruffy, slightly overweight Columbo mode, the kind of seen-it-all cop who, it turns out, hasn’t seen as much as he thinks he has. Halle Berry matches him for frayed charm as she looks down the barrel of middle age in a cruelly competitive field, before deciding to turn the gun outwards. All three have their faults and problems, and the engine of their star power gets them tangled up in increasingly compelling new configurations.
Familiar and welcome faces litter the supporting cast: grizzled fence Nick Nolte, sarky spouse Jennifer Jason Leigh, thuggish understudy Barry Keoghan, none of whom get much development but all of whom grant the film the kind of gravitas earned by either a big budget or, in this case, a strong script full of witty, efficient and insightful dialogue.
What’s more, said script seems to conclude that, compared to insurance and law enforcement, both of which are riddled with dishonesty if not outright corruption, grand larceny can seem an almost noble calling. Especially when our three protagonists seem almost virtuous in their naivety.
Crime 101 is as stylish and well executed as the crimes it depicts, while revealing the weaknesses in the chains binding its litany of incident together. But believable characters and a sly sense of humour lubricate its procedural plot, easing us around its numerous chicanes without diluting their thrill factor. It’s the latest in a long, fine tradition of darkly engrossing tales from beneath the mud-clogged but still flapping wings of a City of Angels.-Stew Mott-
