3.5 stars out of 5
We’ve reached the ruffled Ruffalo era and I am all in. It’s easy to imagine that his character from Task moved from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles to get a fresh start as a police detective.
Kudos to the casting on this flick. Beyond Mark Ruffalo, we also have Chris Hemsworth, believable as a gentleman thief without a real background and without much to say. Interesting to see Halle Berry as a high-end insurance agent who’s aware of a new generation of eye candy to lure in potential clients. Much is made of the face that Berry’s character is 53. (“And I can KICK.”) Also interesting is that Berry is 59 in real life.
In smaller roles, you can’t go wrong with Nick Nolte as a gargling-with-glass-voiced crime boss and Barry Keoghan as a young ultraviolet motorcycle-riding creep willing to do tasks for Nolte that Hemsworth is too principled for. Ooh, parallels between insurance and crime! Blink and you miss her: Jennifer Jason Leigh as Ruffalo’s ex-wife.
Old-fashioned Ruffalo is hot on Hemsworth’s trail; all these multi-million thefts have been close to the 101! Hey that’s in the title of the movie! Ruffalo’s bosses just want him to close cases. Wait, are you telling me there are similarities among insurance, crime, and law enforcement??
Crime 101 kept my attention throughout. It’s stylish and takes advantage of its Los Angeles setting. Ooh I forgot about Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez in A Complete Unknown) as the regular girl who wants to see the human side of hard-to-read Hemsworth; bonus points when she tries to loosen him up by putting on Bruce’s live 1981 recording of “Jersey Girl.” The messaging doesn’t go much deeper than young vs. old and rich vs. poor, but writer/director Bart Layton has made a watchable flick with Crime 101; let’s see how he does in advanced classes.
Jack Silbert, curator