At the top of the end credits of Crime 101, the new heist drama, starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry and Barry Keoghan, is the line "Based on the novella by Don Winslow." And just like that, the head-scratching I found myself doing throughout the film made complete sense: it's based on a book. Which in and of itself is not an issue; it becomes one, though, when the screen adaptation—in this case, by director Bart Layton—is unable to shed the beat-for-beat narrative that is inherent to books, unfolding a little more as we turn each page. In an effort to ensure we "get" it all, Layton ultimately does too much, seemingly confused about whose story this is and who he really wants us to care about in the end.
Hemsworth is Davis, a slick but unassuming criminal who's got a knack for jewelry heists and has a pretty good operation going; with the help of his fencer Money (Nick Nolte, who we only see for the first third of the film then...who knows?), he's able to get in, get out and get the cash without hurting anyone and without ever getting caught. All that changes during one routine heist when he misses that one of his victims has a hidden gun and he plans to use it. This sends Davis on the run, enough to possibly spook him from doing Money's next job.
Elsewhere, a rough-around-the-edges (because of course) LAPD lieutenant Lou (Ruffalo) and his partner, Tillman (Corey Hawkins) are on the trail following the jewelry robbery gone bad, and Lou seems to be the only one who thinks they've got a serial criminal on their hands. Also elsewhere is Sharon (Berry), an ambitious, high-ticket insurance broker facing a crossroads in her career, confronted with sexism and agism at work and tempted to throw it all away for one big "Fuck you" to the whole firm. And finally, elsewhere there's also Keoghan's Ormon, a fidgety and high-strung thief eager to prove himself to Money and show Davis he's not the only game in town.
It's a lot of threads to weave together, and despite his best efforts, Layton struggles to make them all make sense. Have I mentioned that Davis also has a romantic connection he's navigating in the form of a young woman named Maya (Monica Barbaro) who, despite her best instincts, decides to give him a chance? Yeah, there's a lot going on here. Technically speaking, all of it makes sense; if it were a busy narrative and it was difficult to follow? That's a double whammy to sink the whole thing. But at least here, the broad strokes are fairly straightforward and, though we might not always know why we should care that Ormon is so set on taking down Davis or Sharon is so desperate to dig herself out of her career hole, the film's action-movie vibes and fast-paced scenes at least make it watchable.
More so than the heist of it all, as we watch Ruffalo's law enforcement contingent get closer and closer to the truth and see these various stories (mostly) start to intertwine as the film progresses, it's a couple key performances that truly make the movie. Sure, Ruffalo is always dependable and Hemsworth does a fine job being "ordinary" (at least as much as a god among men can be). But for me, it's Berry and Keoghan who are the real standouts here.
Berry's been selective about her roles so far this decade, and while she's capable of much more than what's asked of her here, she nevertheless is the best thing on screen for the film's two-hour-twenty-minute runtime, doing more with the middling material than one would expect. In one pivotal late scene, Sharon finally gets a moment to say what she needs to say to the people who have wronged her and while the writing here lets us down (given what's happened to her, the response as written is actually quite mild), Berry is fierce, intense and an absolute masterclass in restrained power. More of that, please.
Keoghan, too, proves again why he's so watchable in anything in which he appears; ultimately, the role of Ormon is a bit of a throwaway, just in service of the larger plot to get Davis to the redemption arc we expect to see. But in Keoghan's hands, he's a tightly wound ball of frenetic energy with unique mannerisms, eyes darting to and fro, and leaving us with more than a little curiosity about what the heck is going on in that brain of his. It's a testament to Keoghan's ability to inhabit his characters, even the most weasel-y, ill-conceived ones. When Ormon does finally meet his fate in the film's final scenes, though we've learned next to nothing about this character overall, one can't help but feel...something...for him.
An Amazon MGM release, Crime 101 would've been an entirely different experience in another era of moviegoing; in an alternate universe, a heist drama like this one is the season's biggest release, with top tier cast, big production value and appeal across audience sectors. Even in that version of moviegoing, chances are the movie wouldn't go down as one of the better crime flicks, but it would've at least had a chance. Today, and perhaps this is our society's current streaming bias showing, Crime 101 feels like the kind of mediocre production that doesn't need to be a big theatrical release. If you want a big night out at the movies, it's a solid choice. But it's also perfectly suitable to stream from home once it's on the small screen, too.
Crime 101 is now in theaters.
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