Review: ‘Crime 101′ leans into heist clichés and steals from the best

It’s nearly impossible to resist Michael Mann’s 1995 epic crime saga “Heat” — especially for many filmmakers, who often can’t ignore the siren call to make their own Los Angeles-based crime movie featuring a psychologically complex relationship between a perfectionist robber and an obsessive cop.

Writer/director Bart Layton, who previously made the quirky art heist thriller “American Animals,” now offers up his version of “Heat” with “Crime 101,” based on a 2020 novella by Don Winslow, about a jewel thief who never strays far from the 101 Freeway.

An opening sequence follows the meticulous preparation of our thief, Davis (Chris Hemsworth), which involves an almost “American Psycho”-level cleanliness ritual, soundtracked to the soothing intonation of a guided meditation.

The sound of these affirmations knit together our main characters in montage: Davis and his victims, a trio of diamond dealers whose extensive security measures are in vain, as well as the morning routines of schlubby LAPD detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), and image-conscious insurance broker Sharon (Halle Berry).

A guided meditation soundtrack underneath an armed robbery is an ironic juxtaposition, and it becomes a motif throughout, a representation of a wellness-obsessed modern Los Angeles, and a nod at our characters’ desire to achieve some kind of serenity and control within the chaos of their lives. Lou takes up yoga; Sharon is partial to green smoothies.

This is just one way “Crime 101” completely whiffs the subtext. Everything is on the surface, characters state the obvious, and the dialogue has the delicacy of a sledgehammer. One character is so directly blunt it’s almost played for laughs.

That would be Maya (Monica Barbaro), who plays the Eady to Hemsworth’s Neil McCauley, a love interest who barrels into this smooth operator out of the blue (she literally rear-ends him), and awakens a desire for a real relationship in the lone wolf who lives by the beach in an anonymous condo.

Layton maintains a simmering tension throughout this twisty game of cops-and-robber-and-robber with a commitment to gritty SoCal location shooting, a few bang-up action sequences and nifty reveals.

But the script relies on lots and lots of plot to keep it moving forward and the dialogue lacks nuance, inference or any semblance of how people would actually speak. At one point, Sharon’s boss (Paul Adelstein) is blatantly, almost hilariously ageist to her, even stating her age in case we didn’t get what he meant.

Hemsworth moves right, but he feels tight and stiff playing stoic — this kind of role is not in his strike zone as a performer, and he doesn’t connect. But Keoghan, with his white-blond mop top and colorful windbreakers, is wildly compelling as yet another broken doll-boy, simultaneously unpredictable and vulnerable.

The film comes alive with him on screen, as it does with Ruffalo, because of the strong characterization that both actors bring to their roles. Everyone else feels unfortunately cookie-cutter, or simply alien.

Layton strives to capture L.A., and he gets parts of it right: the gritty side streets and strip malls and streaky headlights at night are all certainly comforting as familiar signifiers of L.A. crime movies, at least. But he fumbles the fixation on Los Angeles wellness culture as a running theme — or joke?

“Crime 101” overstays its welcome and is rife with bland story filler, but there’s no denying that it is handsomely made and rarely boring, offering the nominal pleasures of a good-looking serious adult crime drama, which is all-too-rare these days. After all, for some crime junkies, off-brand “Heat” is still better than no “Heat” at all.

2 stars out of 4

Rated: R for language throughout, some violence and sexual material/nudity.

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.