Crime 101 Review
Crime 101 feels like a film that knows exactly where it belongs. It is sleek in the way a classic crime film is sleek, but there is definitely a colder edge to it that places it firmly in the present. You enjoy it as a return to the classic crime, cat-and-mouse-chase thriller, complete with a stacked cast and a sun-drenched Los Angeles backdrop, without feeling like it’s simply trading on nostalgia. It wears its influences proudly and openly, but they do not trap it.
The story unfolds at first across a handful of intersecting lives rather than from a single central perspective. A series of heists along California’s Route 101 that slowly pulls the characters together, sometimes knowingly, sometimes by coincidence. Mike Davis, Chris Hemsworth’s methodical thief, moves through the city with quiet precision, striking carefully and attempting to avoid violence wherever possible. Detective Lou Lubesnick, played by Mark Ruffalo, is the only one who senses a pattern forming, even as his department dismisses him as obsessive and ineffective. Caught between them is Sharon Colvin, Halle Berry’s insurance broker, whose professional world begins to overlap with the criminal one in ways that feel both accidental and inevitable.
Bart Layton takes his time letting these threads converge. Working in pure fiction after his last few projects rooted in documentary, he seems more interested in routine than spectacle. Characters pass each other, observe each other, and circle each other long before anything truly collides. That slow, almost disciplined accumulation creates tension, even if it also ultimately contributes to the film’s occasional sense of drift. Mike, on paper, should be the film’s emotional centre. In practice, he often feels like its cleanest surface.
Hemsworth plays him with control and restraint, but the performance keeps you at arm’s length. You understand the character, but you rarely sit with him. Though perhaps that is the point. He moves efficiently through the story, doing exactly what’s required, yet he never quite lingers once a scene ends.
The film becomes quite engaging when attention shifts elsewhere. Ruffalo brings a weary decency to Lubesnick that makes the character feel lived-in rather than schematic. Berry provides the film with its clearest emotional anchor. Her Sharon operates in a corporate world that demands composure at all times, and she moves convincingly between control and barely contained anger. Without her, Crime 101 would feel far closer to pure procedure. When she finally pushes back, the moment lands because it feels earned.
Barry Keoghan disrupts the film entirely. His presence is volatile and unsettling, and whenever he appears, the tone sharpens. Those scenes briefly remind you that crime stories should feel dangerous, not just methodical. You keep waiting for the film to push further in that direction. It never really does.
Technically, Crime 101 is confident. The cinematography is crisp, the movement between spaces smooth and assured. It helps the story flow, even when the narrative begins to tread water. Around the midpoint, the pacing loosens, and the film starts circling familiar beats without deepening them. It never collapses, but it does drift.
There’s nothing especially wrong with Crime 101. It’s well made, well cast, and often enjoyable. It understands the genre it’s working within and plays by its rules. But once it’s over, it’s hard to point to what truly sticks. It does the job. You just wish it had taken more risks. When the credits roll, the feeling is pleasant rather than lasting. And for a film this polished, that might be its biggest limitation.
★★★
In cinemas from February 13th / Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Nolte / Dir: Bart Layton / Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures UK / 15
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