‘Crime 101’ Review: A Moody, Michael Mann–Tinted Heist That Mostly Delivers
Bart Layton’s latest thriller, Crime 101, folds meticulous heist craft into an elegant Los Angeles mood piece, trading full-bore ambition for a tighter, more restrained groove. The film centers on a jewel thief, a dogged detective and an insurance adjuster whose lives intersect along a run of robberies mapped to California’s Route 101. The result is an enjoyable, stylish picture that borrows familiar moves but still manages to be engaging, thanks largely to committed lead performances and strong location work.
Tone, influences and the Los Angeles canvas
Crime 101 wears its influences plainly. It channels the late-night, neon-lit rhythms and procedural precision long associated with certain classic crime cinema, but it does so in a measured, almost minimalist key. Layton favors coastal imagery and interior spaces that feel like refuges or aspired-to sanctuaries for his characters—an ocean-view apartment becomes as much a psychological set piece as a physical one. That coastal motif doubles as thematic shorthand: the sea represents escape, calm and the possibility of reinvention for each protagonist.
The film leans into methodical planning and logistical detail—the choreography of a robbery, the valuation of diamonds, the routines of insurance work—which lends authenticity and keeps suspense humming even when the plot recycles familiar genre beats. The Route 101 conceit serves as a tidy connective tissue for a series of robberies, even if the geographic logic will invite a knowing smile from Angelenos who are used to the city’s traffic realities.
Performances: Hemsworth, Ruffalo and Berry anchor the piece
Chris Hemsworth anchors the picture with a controlled, charismatic turn as Mike, a jewel thief who prizes nonviolence and precision. Hemsworth plays the character as a quietly intense operator—polished, inscrutable and emotionally guarded—which gives the film its central magnetism. Mike’s discipline and occasional awkwardness in social settings make him a compelling study in contrasts: a man built for solitary, surgical crimes who also allows small glimpses of decency.
Mark Ruffalo brings warmth and a weary intelligence to Detective Lou Lubesnick, an LAPD veteran who spots a pattern where colleagues see isolated incidents. Ruffalo’s Lou is the film’s moral center in some ways—an investigator who admires the craft he must ultimately thwart. Halle Berry’s Sharon is equally key: an insurance broker whose job requires both technical appraisal and a knack for judging character. Berry’s scenes register as quietly powerful, especially when the screenplay allows her to push against the limits of her workplace ambitions.
Supporting turns add texture: a veteran mentor figure, a jittery rival with a volatile streak, and a girlfriend who presses against Mike’s secrecy. Some side characters land with less payoff, their arcs introduced briskly and then receding, but the principal trio carries emotional weight throughout.
Pacing, plotting and where it slips
Crime 101’s victories are in its set-pieces and its tonal control. An early heist establishes the film’s exacting temperament, and a later high-speed confrontation is staged with kinetic precision. Layton’s direction favors economy: scenes breathe, suspense accumulates, and performances are allowed to reveal character rather than rely on exposition.
Where the film falters is in a desire to cast a wider moral net than its modest scope can support. Some subplot threads are introduced and then thinly resolved, and a few supporting players feel underused. The film also occasionally leans too readily on familiar genre shorthand, which softens the impact of its most ambitious beats.
Still, for viewers who appreciate craft, cool restraint and well-executed set pieces, Crime 101 offers more than enough to satisfy. It’s being released 13 February (ET) in the United States and the United Kingdom, with an earlier date in other markets. It may not reinvent the heist movie, but it refines a comfortable, moody strain of it into a polished, watchable package.
