‘Crime 101’ Is an Old-Fashioned Heist Film That Pays Off

If there’s anything I miss in pop culture, it’s the presence of ordinary movies. I don’t mean blockbusters like Avatar or cultural events like Barbenheimer or Oscar contenders like One Battle After Another. I’m talking about the routine, well-made entertainments that, for nearly a century, used to open in theaters every week. You’d go see them because the story sounded good or you liked the stars or you just wanted to enjoy something as part of an audience.

I was reminded of how much I’d missed them as I watched Crime 101, a pleasingly rare example of what used to be commonplace. Based on a 2020 novella by the terrific crime novelist Don Winslow, Bart Layton’s movie boasts a slate of top-notch stars and puts a nifty, self-conscious spin on the old-fashioned heist picture. Hopscotching through Los Angeles’ glamor and grit, the action centers on three solitary characters, each at a personal Rubicon.

Chris Hemsworth plays Davis, a virtuoso jewel thief who pulls off clockwork robberies in neighborhoods along the 101 Freeway. A study in terse masculinity — Davis is a Steve McQueen fan, it’s worth noting — this control freak gets knocked off his bearings by running afoul of his mentor (played by a menacing Nick Nolte) and by getting involved with a charming publicist (Monica Barbaro) who wants him to open up.

His nemesis is an honest police detective named Lou, nicely played by Mark Ruffalo. Rumpled and brainy, Lou’s got an unhappy wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and an unhappy boss who tells him to stop chasing the 101 jewel thief and start padding LAPD arrest stats by closing easier cases. But Lou’s obsessed.

Both he and Davis wind up crossing paths with Sharon (an excellent Halle Berry) who works selling high-end insurance to rich jerks (one played with fine jerkiness by Tate Donovan). Waiting for a promotion that never comes, Sharon suffers from insomnia — her sleep app chastises her — and seeks refuge in self-affirmation tapes.

Now, if you’ve ever seen a heist movie, you know that the action will inevitably build to a big robbery that brings all the principals together. Crime 101 does this quite deftly and even stirs into the brew a young thug, played by Barry Keoghan in comical blond hair, whose run-amok emotions make him dangerous. That said, one of the movie’s pleasures is that it isn’t clogged with action sequences. It’s got an old-fashioned interest in character, especially compromised characters, and gestures at darkness rather than diving into it. It glistens with the silver-lined optimism you find in Elmore Leonard.

The dialogue is intelligent and often witty; the stars seem like stars; the tension keeps building. And now that filming has largely abandoned LA, it’s a treat to see a movie that once again captures the many textures of the city, from its taco stands and snaking freeways to its yoga-mat beaches, billionaire mansions and encampments on the streets. Layton lets us see how the whole plot is driven by the abyss separating the entitlement of LA’s haves from the struggle of its countless have-nots.

Winslow’s original novella appeared in a collection called Broken, and that’s a handy clue to what makes this movie interesting. Davis, Lou and Sharon are all wounded, but essentially decent people who follow specific codes of honor. Davis’ robberies take care to never ever hurt anyone; Lou doesn’t bust innocent people just for the arrest stats or cover up police shootings like other cops; Sharon behaves like a proper insurance agent, believing she’s helping people feel safe and climbing the corporate ladder diligently.

Yet they inhabit a broken reality. Davis’ fellow crooks don’t actually believe in honor among thieves; Lou’s colleagues care less about justice than covering for each other; Sharon’s bosses think that women agents age-out because rich male clients only want to deal with hot, young ones. As the story builds, each must confront this broken world, and decide whether or not to do some breaking of their own — starting with their own personal codes.

Naturally, I won’t tell you what — or who — gets broken. But I will say that Crime 101 pays off neatly. Probably too neatly. But I didn’t mind at all. That’s how ordinary movies are supposed to end.

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‘Crime 101’ is in theaters nationwide now.