Crime 101: A Review

 

Crime 101 Is a Character Study on Choices and Balance

Crime 101 is a classic heist movie with jewel theft, double crossing, high speed car chases and an exciting finish. It’s a solid film that doesn’t waste time and doesn’t leave loose ends. It’s focused on making the viewer understand that life is full of choices and when we look for money, we lose. Also, life is about balance, and a chaotic, selfish existence will lead to emptiness. Director Barry Layton did a character study, set in Los Angeles and made it a crime movie.

The basic framework goes like this.

Breakdown

A thief named Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) gets his jobs through a fence named “Money” (Nike Nolte) The movie opens with Mike following a crew of high end jewelers on their way to a sale. He robs them in a parking lot but is shot by one of the sellers with a hidden gun. The bullet leaves a trace of blood in the car, an important detail that will help detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) track him down.

After the initial heist, Mike gives the diamonds to his boss Money. The close call forces Mike to question the next job in Santa Barbara. He tells Money he has a bad feeling about it. Money just tells him to take some time off and instead, recruits a conscientious young motocross punk named Ormon to do the Santa Barbara job. Mike finds out and dumps Money. Then, Money has Ormon follow Mike to get information about Mike’s next job.

Halle Berry is an insurance agent (Sharon Colvin) who prospects high end, risky, clients and sells them insurance on their jewels and weddings. Despite promises from the upper management, they keep using her to close deals and dangle the promise of becoming a partner in the firm. One of her clients is the jewel seller that Mike robbed. Because of her lucrative contacts, Mike tries to recruit her for a new job where they can split the money. She gets offended. He tells her to leave a picture of a beach on her Instagram page if she changes her mind.

Meanwhile, Ormon tries to intercept Sharon after getting a tip from Mike’s tech contact about their relationship. In a thrilling chase scene through the dark streets of Los Angeles, Ormon dodges traffic on his motorcycle while being hounded by Mike. Mike eventually scares Ormon away, for a while. Sharon is denied another promotion at work, it’s clear by now she won’t get it at all. She takes her beach picture for Instagram and Mike shows up. They work out the details on the heist and agree to a split.

Mark Ruffalo’s character, Lou, has developed a theory about the jewel theft along the 101. When the blood sample in the car pings a match to Mike, Lou finds Mike’s foster mother and is able to match a face to a name. From here he develops a plan to ensnare Mike in a bait and switch robbery, with the help of Sharon.

Themes

There are a few consistent themes that run though this movie. All the main characters answer to someone who doesn’t have their best interest in mind, and in some cases are specifically taking from them. Money uses Mike for his talents and then sends an underling after him. Sharon’s boss at the insurance company strings her along so she’ll keep signing wealthy clients. He has no intention of making her a partner. Detective Lou Lubesnick’s is told to look the other way by his superior at the LAPD on multiple occasions. His principles prevent him from lying to help the police department. His wife has been cheating on him for a while and when he asks her how long it’s been going on, all she can say is “Do you really want to know?”

Even Ormon, the young thief with impulse control problems, is following in the footsteps of Mike by stealing for Money the old gangster.

Another theme is the idea of the beach as an escape, to offer balance to an unbalanced mind. This seems like a Buddhist interpretation of life. Even the way the director shows the 101 freeway from above at night. We see the 2 opposite directions of the road, reinforcing the idea of opposite choices. Chaos and order move in different directions. The soft new age voice on Sharon’s sleep app serves a counter to the stress we see in the rest of the film. She seeks peace, and sleep, but it’s not working.

Mike is an empty vessel. We see his struggle to have a relationship with a woman he met when she bumped into him on the freeway. His version of peace is the beach condo he escapes to, the lapping waves serving as a substitute for inner calm. Sharon tells Mike over cocktails that those who lived in chaos seek calm. But in doing so, she exposes her own search for it as well.

Lou joins a group yoga class, where he meets Sharon. He also gets an apartment on the beach when his wife kicks him out. His dress has even changes the last time he meets Sharon. He wears a loose unzipped hoodie while standing in the yoga classroom. All 3 of the characters are caught up in a competitive game of life and they’re looking to get out.

Conclusion

As for the acting, the performances were fantastic. Nick Nolte was underused as the abusive gangster, and substitute father, to young men hoping to make him proud. Chris Hemsworth is more versatile than I imagined. He does vulnerability well, it’s all in the face. I kept thinking of how much this reminded me of Michael Mann’s Heat, especially in the thief/detective relationship between Mike and Lou. In Crime 101 though, we get a fuller picture of the criminal and what makes him tick. Mark Ruffalo plays Lou gentle and frumpy, Popeye Doyle he is not. But his harmless nature fits perfectly with the situational ethics that unfold in the final scene.

I thoroughly enjoyed Crime 101.