One of the oldest cliches in cops and robbers movies is how the two groups are sides of the same coin. That they’re all angry psychopaths who don’t think twice about killing to get what they want.  The only difference between them is that those on the law enforcement side wear badges, and that the criminals wear better clothes and drive nicer cars.  Thankfully, Crime 101 doesn’t go in that direction.  Instead, it focuses on why some people are drawn to criminality, while others retain their moral compass.  It’s a movie that follows the genre formula fairly closely, but colors outside the lines just enough to keep us guessing.

Crime 101 opens with intrigue.  Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) rids his body of DNA while a jewel courier and his cousin pick up a shipment.  Davis pretends to be the courier’s ride-along protection, which is easy to pull off because the car he’s driving has tinted windows.  Davis is just a serious-looking dude driving a nice car with tinted windows.  The actual protection is resting in the trunk of Davis’ car.

When the courier pulls over to make the delivery, Davis makes his move.  Somehow, Davis knows that the jewels in the handcuff-tethered briefcase are fakes, and that the real ones are taped to the courier’s body.  Clearly, Davis is no smash-and-grab thief.  He researches his jobs extensively beforehand so that they come off without a hitch.  Usually.

Something Davis didn’t anticipate was the courier’s cousin taking a shot at him, which leaves him momentarily stunned.  Davis doesn’t return fire, though.  Instead, he speeds away, taking an elaborate route through city streets, then parks in a nondescript garage and covers the car with a tarp.  When his breathing calms down, Davis heads home.  The job wasn’t perfect, but he has the diamonds and didn’t hurt anyone.

The opening scenes also introduce us to two other characters who will cross paths with Davis very soon.  The first is Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), a grumpy and crazy-haired middle-aged man bickering with his wife over bathroom time.  The second is Sharon (Halle Berry), an insurance agent for the rich.  The calming affirmations we’ve been hearing on the soundtrack are from her yoga instructor, and how yoga becomes a unifying thread in the story is clever.

Back at his spartan bachelor pad, Davis notices that he was cut by a piece of flying glass.  This gives him pause, because he’s never been injured on a job before.  Davis then meets his handler, “Money” (Nick Nolte), who exchanges the diamonds for cash.  Later, when they discuss  Davis’ next job, Davis backs out because the presence of civilians makes it risky.  As Davis leaves, Money yells after him, “You’ll be back with your tail between your legs!”  I wouldn’t bet on it, money man.

Lou believes that there’s one guy behind the recent string of robberies because the MO is the same: nobody gets hurt.  He tries to convince his partner, Det. Tillman (Corey Hawkins), but Tillman just wants to close cases and get promoted.  Even when Lou shows how all the crimes all take place near the 101, Police Captain Stewart (Matthew Del Negro) is dubious and pokes holes in his theory.  I could almost hear Lou’s teeth grinding when Stewart gave him the old, “You used to be a good detective” spiel.

Turns out that Sharon has two bad bosses, both of which have been stringing her along for a promotion.  After Sharon is unable to land a new client’s wedding, Phil (Patrick Mulvey) hands the lead over to the newly arrived (and much younger) agent Madeline (Crosby Fitzgerald).  When Sharon presses big boss Mark (Paul Adelstein) about her promotion, he gives her the “wait ‘till next year” line.

Davis may be a master criminal, but he’s no ladies man.  (This is very hard to believe because he’s played by Chris Hemsworth.)  First he has an awkward encounter with an escort, then tries to buy his way out of a fender bender with the very attractive Maya (Monica Barbaro).  Davis does get the nerve to text her for a date, which she accepts because he’s rich and handsome.  As their relationship evolves, Maya’s suspicions grow.

Davis’ “last job” requires convincing Sharon to give him intel on her lost client’s wedding plans, which involves millions of dollars in cash and diamonds.  Sharon initially balks at Davis’ proposition, but crosses over to the dark side when she sees Mark cozying up to Madeline.  Hell hath no fury like Halle Berry scorned.

Back in the criminal underworld, Money enlists psychotic nut job Ormon (Barry Keoghan) to do the job Davis backed out of, which devolves into a violent cluster.  Money then has Ormon tail Davis to find out what he’s planning, which leads to another great chase scene.  (Writer-director Bart Layton stages these so well, I wish there was one more.)  Their confrontation ends with Davis telling Ormon to stay away from him, but you know Ormon won’t back down because now, it’s personal.

Everything culminates as you’d expect, with a wild confrontation between Davis, Lou and Ormon.  However, the movie ends on a surprisingly compassionate note, reminding us that helping people is more important than an arrest–or the perfect score.

Recommendation

For a genre piece like Crime 101, success means being entertaining.  It works because it does everything you’d expect from this kind of movie very well.  It helps tremendously that the movie is directed with pizzazz.  The movie grabbed my attention from the beginning with its unique view of LA in the early hours, then with its use of mounted cameras on vehicles and people.  The editing moves the story along at a brisk pace, and the pulsing musical score by Blanck Mass is incredible.  There are wonderful performances throughout the recognizable cast.  It’s a very good movie because the film delivers what we expect, plus a little bit more.

Crime 101 is packed with everything you’d expect from this kind of movie: complex characters, real locations, riveting car chases, diamonds, and so on.  Writer-director Bart Layton wears his Michael Mann influences proudly and brings plenty of style to the proceedings.  There are shiny black cars, shots of the eponymous highway at night, beachfront houses, grimy storefronts and so on.  The movie resembles an LA version of Mann’s Miami Vice TV show at times, with a white and black palette substituted for pastelles.  It’s a great looking film that zips along from beginning to end.

Unfortunately, the film’s weakness is having Chris Hemsworth as the lead.  I like Hemsworth, who’s at his best when he plays larger-than-life characters like Thor and Dementus in Furiosa.  He’s also well-suited to action spectacles like the Extraction movies.  Unfortunately, Hemsworth is not believable as an evasive, fidgety thief scarred by childhood abuse and trauma.  He tries really hard in this movie, perhaps too hard.  The role required nuance, but Hemsworth’s just not that kind of actor.

Surrounding Hemsworth with veteran actors was a wise move.  Mark Ruffalo’s detective reminded me of Inspector Dave Toschi in Zodiac, a similarly rumpled and weary law enforcement type who cares despite how frustrating his job is.  It’s an enjoyable supporting turn, and if anyone ever decides to bring back Columbo, Ruffalo’s the guy.

The rest of the cast is exceptional.  Halle Berry still brings plenty of glamour and sass.  Monica Barbaro is feisty and sexy as Hemsworth’s incredulous girlfriend.  I could barely understand Nick Nolte, but he’s as weirdly captivating as ever.  Paul Adelstein and Matthew Del Negro are bad bosses personified.  Jennifer Jason Leigh makes her presence felt in a one scene cameo.  Barry Keoghan wins the scene stealing crown as a nutty rival thief.  Keoghan’s quickly turning into the great character actor of his generation.  The little unexpected touches he brings to his character are simply brilliant.

Crime 101 is a solid entry to the cops and robbers genre, featuring a terrific cast and stylish direction.  I didn’t buy Hemsworth in the leading role, but the movie works because it’s well-made and exciting.  Recommended.

Analysis

As I mentioned above, Crime 101 doesn’t waste time trying to convince us that cops and robbers are alike.  There certainly are similarities between Detective Lou and thief Mike Davis.  Both are intelligent, careful, detail-oriented, driven, etc.  However, the movie is at its best when it shows why good people wind up committing crimes.

For Detective Lou, the temptation is very real.  He watches a cop give justification for his fatal shooting by making it look like the thief was about to draw a gun on him.  Then he learns that his partner lied in support of the other detective in a “get along to go along” maneuver.  But Lou’s made of different stuff.  Although everything would be easier for him if he acquiesced to what everyone else is doing around him, he’s too honest to do that.

Sharon feels similar pressures at work, but unlike Lou she gives into the pull of crime for revenge.  She’s had enough of being passed over for a promotion and knows that her beauty has an expiration date, so she gives Davis what he needs for his job.  The problem is that she doesn’t realize that dipping into crime inevitably  leads to consequences.  She’s beaten by Ormon for information, which leads her back to the only honest man she knows for protection, Lou.

Another reason why good people turn bad is they’re attracted to the lifestyle.  Maya’s attracted to the danger that she senses around Davis.  It also helps that Davis is rich and portrayed by the towering hunk of Aussie beefcake that is Chris Hemsworth.  As their relationship progresses, it’s clear that she knows something’s not right about Davis, but he’s too darn handsome to quit.  For Maya, crime is alluring because of its danger and its privilege.

Lastly, Davis turned to crime as a response to his awful childhood, when he was physically abused.  He then lived in foster care, which was a better situation, but left and was on the street when Money recruited him.  Although Davis is a criminal, he’s depicted as a good person, refusing to harm anyone during the commission of a crime because he knows how violence can be life-changing in a bad way.  Davis does what he does because of his traumatic upbringing, not because he’s a psychopath like Ormon.

The underlying theme of the movie is not letting life dictate the people we become, as personified by Lou.  He’s the moral center of the movie, the one character who resists making bad choices because that’s not who he is, or who he wants to be.  His ability to stay true to his beliefs is what enables him to “save” Sharon and Davis.  He doesn’t let life dictate the person he is.  Instead, he always makes the right choice, no matter how difficult it is, because that’s what defines him.

The Leading Man Experiment

Ever since Chris Hemsworth became a household name playing Thor, he’s been trying to prove that he’s more than just Thor.  Since his solo MCU movie arrived in 2011, he’s appeared in IP-driven franchises (Men In Black: International, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, Snow White and the Huntsman), a horror movie (The Cabin in the Woods), prestige drama (In the Heart of the Sea), a car racing film (Rush), a crime thriller (Blackhat), high-velocity action vehicles (Extraction and Extraction 2) and a psychological thriller (Bad Times at the El Royale).  While some of these movies are good, audiences have mostly stayed away.  Everybody may like Chris, but they only pay to see him swinging Mjölnir.

The one performance that showed Hemsworth a way forward was as Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.  Ironically, despite his performance earning raves, the movie underperformed at the box office.  Like Thor, Dementus is a larger-than-life character that leverages Hemsworth’s physical presence and self aware sense of humor.  It’s a role that isn’t meant to be taken seriously and is fun because of its hammy bigness.  

Why Hemsworth hasn’t sought out more roles like Dementus is a mystery.  If he still believes he can be a serious actor at this point, that’s his choice.  The problem for Hemsworth is that when he attempts something outside of his range, you can see his effort on screen.  His turn as the  “himbo” Kevin in Ghostbusters: Answer the Call was laborious.  Hemsworth lacks the comedic touch to be a simple-minded dimwit, and his take on the character made him look brain damaged.  I may applaud his courage and conviction, but the results haven’t shown that he can convincingly play a role outside of the ones he’s known for, which is that of the gregarious superhero/villain.

What Hemsworth should be doing is using Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career as a guide.  He should seek out roles that are best-suited to his talents, not those that expose his shortcomings.  Arnold’s career was so enormously successful because he knew what his range was and rarely ventured outside it.  He understood his limitations and worked with them, not against them.

Hemsworth and Arnold have a lot of similarities.  Both are larger-than-life, muscle-bound guys  with a natural, self-effacing sense of humor.  In interviews, they have an easy going charisma that wins me over the moment they start talking.  For example, there’s a video of an Australian weather reporter in the field, and Hemsworth appears because he’s monitoring conversation work in the area.  The piece goes in an entirely different direction because of his friendliness and charm.

Which begs the question as to why Hemsworth would play a role like Mike Davis in Crime 101.  While there probably are socially inept men out there who are tall, handsome and chiseled like Hemsworth, I didn’t buy it.  Instead of being faithful to how the character was originally written in the novella, it needed to be changed to fit Hemsworth.  The scene where Davis is nervous around a call girl simply isn’t believable.  Neither is whatever accent Hemsworth is trying to approximate.  Instead of sounding American, he sounds very much like an Australian pretending to be an American and failing miserably. If this were Schwarzenegger, the part would have been reworked to rely on Hemsworth’s cocky persona and let him retain his natural accent.

Hemsworth’s casualness very rarely comes through in his films.  He does everything required of him in Extraction, but the movie is very grim and joyless.  Granted, the material doesn’t entirely allow for that, but if Arnold were doing that movie, you know he’d have a few funny one-liners to take the edge off of things.  Arnold wasn’t a great actor, but he was masterful at letting the audience in on the joke.  His movies were over the top action spectacles, a ticket to the Arnold thrill ride.  With Hemsworth, that aspect is sorely missed.

Another example of a career Hemsworth could emulate is that of Jason Statham.  Statham has done very well basically playing the same character in all of his movies.  He does tweak the formula slightly occasionally, like when he was in the Melissa McCarthy action-comedy Spy, or a thief in The Bank Job or a deep sea diver in The Meg.  But those roles aren’t acting stretches for him.  He’s still a gruff tough guy with a British accent.  The only difference is whether he punches, kicks and shoots people or not.

The immediate future for Hemsworth involves more of Thor, with Avengers: Doomsday coming out at the end of this year.  I suspect he’ll do another Thor film, one that he’ll be prouder of than Love & Thunder.  He’s scheduled to do another Extraction film for Netflix, which I’m not overly excited about.  The outlier is Prince Charming, a film he’s attached to but is in the very early stages of development.  Hemsworth’s skill at playing goofy, oblivious men seems like a good fit there.