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Chris Hemsworth plays a master thief and Mark Ruffalo plays a dogged L.A. cop in Crime 101.Dean Rogers/Supplied
Crime 101
Directed by Bart Layton
Written by Bart Layton, based on the novella by Don Winslow
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Halle Berry
Classification 14A; 140 minutes
Opens in theatres Feb. 13
Critic’s Pick
Late in the slick if distended new thriller Crime 101, the film’s two main characters, a dogged L.A. cop played by Mark Ruffalo and a master thief played by Chris Hemsworth, namecheck a pair of Steve McQueen films, Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair. While those McQueen movies speak to the building blocks of Crime 101, with its car chases and high-stakes heists, the real reference point for director Bart Layton’s film is Michael Mann’s 1995 classic Heat. So much so, that this new film fits into a burgeoning sub-genre that I’ll dub “re-Heated cinema,” which already counts The Dark Knight, The Town, Den of Thieves and Wrath of Man as entries, to name just a few.
This isn’t a knock against those films, or Crime 101 in particular. Once a master artist such as Mann has set the blueprint for cops-and-robbers cinematic chic, there is little the next generation of filmmakers can do but pay their respects through homage. Which is how we get Crime 101’s very Heat-like story and style. Right down to what I believe was Layton’s blink-and-you-miss-it shot referencing Canadian artist Alex Colville’s painting Pacific, 1967, which Mann famously used as the aesthetic template for his own Al Pacino/Robert De Niro film.
The new movie is adapted from Don Winslow’s slick 2020 novella, the prolific crime author himself a long-time parishioner at the Church of Mann. Ruffalo’s cop is the equivalent to Pacino’s workaholic detective Vincent Hanna (here named Detective Lubesnick), while Hemsworth’s crook is positioned as a dangerously close facsimile of De Niro’s high-IQ criminal Neil McCauley (given the not-nearly-as-fun name Mike Davis).
Like McCauley, Mike knows the ins and outs of a score, has a reliable fence to sell the ill-gotten goods (Nick Nolte, doing a fine Jon Voight-in-Heat impersonation) and the unrelenting desire to live by the Pacific Ocean. Mike also has a pattern: his thefts are all conducted just off the 101 freeway that hugs the Southern California coast. And Det. Lubesnick, like his cinematic predecessor Hanna, thinks that he’s that close to nailing the crook.
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What follows is a cat-and-mouse game that is sometimes thrilling, sometimes just a little too laborious, especially once the story ropes in a handful of supporting characters, including a random working stiff (Monica Barbaro) who has a meet-cute with Mike, a psychotic looter who is eager to usurp Mike’s next gig (played by today’s psychopath expert, Barry Keoghan), and an insurance broker (Halle Berry) who might be the key to Mike’s one last job. Also, Jennifer Jason Leigh pops up for a few welcome minutes as Lubesnick’s dissatisfied wife before too quickly disappearing.
Layton, who previously directed the 2018 Keoghan-led heist film American Animals, knows how to effectively stage all the hallmarks of the genre: heart-stopping getaway car chases, tense hold-ups and my personal favourite, that one obligatory “aha!” moment in which the cop finally figures out just what is going on.
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Chris Hemsworth and Halle Berry in a still image from Crime 101.Merrick Morton/Supplied
In an era where so many L.A.-set movies are filmed anywhere but L.A., it is also heartening to see the city shot up close and personal. There is something about a grungy L.A. shopping plaza, populated by everything from chicken shops to bargain-rent jewellers to suspicious massage parlours, that cannot be replicated in any other metropolis.
The film’s performances, too, are across-the-board solid. Hemsworth isn’t given all that much to work with – Mike is an intentionally blank slate of a hero, though his McCauley-esque persona is peppered with touches of Ben Affleck’s number-cruncher turned contract killer from The Accountant. Yet, the actor manages to evoke both intimidation and sympathy. It is all the more impressive a performance given that he’s yet again prevented from using his native Australian accent, which is always a joy to hear.
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Meanwhile, the actor’s frequent Avengers teammate Ruffalo is perfectly rumpled, even if he is basically playing a version of the same character from his HBO series Task. And although the women in the story are given comparatively limited screen time than the boys and their criminal toys, Berry and Barbaro leave their own indelible marks. In fact, Barbaro, last seen as Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown, might deliver the most intensely smouldering few seconds of cinema this year during a scene in which she slow dances with Hemsworth to a Bruce Springsteen track. The camera loves the actress, but Barbaro knows that she has to love it back even more.
Whereas Mann gave Heat the perfect narrative off-ramp, though, Layton lets Crime 101 circle the block toward the end. This doesn’t make the film a job gone sideways, just one where the stakes feel ever so minor in comparison. It will steal you away for an evening, but you can’t retire on it.
