Alliance Entertainment
Meticulous jewel thief Mike (Chris Hemsworth) commits his crimes along Route 101 in the greater Los Angeles area, leaving an increasingly frustrated Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) stumped due to the unusual lack of evidence.
However, when a heist does not go according to plan and threatens to compromise Mike’s streak, Lou finally seems to have found a thread to pull to potentially unravel Mike’s endeavors.
Meanwhile, in preparation for his next heist, Mike solicits information about high-end insurance broker Sharon (Halle Berry) to get inside information about his next target.
Overlooked and undermined in her job, Sharon becomes yet another player in the expanding heist game.
Once the reckless and violent Ormon (Barry Keoghan) botches a job Mike was originally supposed to do, all hell breaks loose, and a tense and unpredictable cat-and-mouse game ensues.
The proud tradition of L.A. Noir thrillers has been overwhelmingly neglected of late, but Crime 101 is a welcome return to the subgenre, carrying its inspirations on its sleeve without feeling derivative or losing sight of its responsibility to weave a sincerely compelling narrative of its own.
The visuals are stylish and slick without being overworked, the cinematography helping to emphasize the geographical setting as well as the intense nature of the heist sequences.
In terms of pacing, the film’s 140-minute runtime moves along briskly, favoring character development in the best possible way, as the time spent focusing on the inner workings of the characters as individuals as well as their relationships with one another help to make the perils they encounter that much more engaging once the film shifts gears in its tense action sequences.
While this also means that the action is not the film’s main emphasis, it is still executed with kinetic intensity, occurring at well-structured intervals with ample tension and stakes.
The competent craftsmanship behind the camera further stretches to the performances in front of the camera, as there is not a single weak player to be found.
Hemsworth delivers a subtle yet nuanced performance that is far removed from his exuberant turn as Thor in the MCU, while Ruffalo and Berry both play to type as the weary cop and the slighted but competent woman respectively, with Keoghan rounding the ensemble off by bringing a brooding unpleasantry to his supporting character.
Crime thrillers are few and far between these days, and Crime 101 emphasizes why that is a shame, as it is an entertaining and competent bit of filmmaking that offers compelling performances in an engaging story that hits familiar beats without faltering to self-indulgent pretentiousness relying solely on the star power of its seasoned cast of A-listers, and its status as a box office bomb should not be a deterrent to giving this one a go.
Verdict: 8 out of 10.
