Category: movie

CRIME 101, which has received generally positive reviews, is a search for meaning story confined within a crime caper.

Serial jewelry thief Mike / James Davis (Chris Hemsworth) has rules for his robberies, which he hopes will enable him to amass a predetermined amount of money to compensate for his childhood poverty. He is pursued by Lou Lebesnick (Mark Ruffalo), a seasoned detective who cannot convince his colleagues of the connections among the robberies he is investigating.

These rules explain why Mike cancels his next planned heist, which his fence Money (Nick Nolte) then shares with Ormon (Barry Keoghan). For his next job, Mike needs the assistance of a high-end insurance broker named Sharon (Halle Berry), who feels unappreciated by her boss, especially as she ages.

Mike proposes a dinner date about to Maya (Monica Barbaro) after she crashes her boss’s car at a stoplight into his. Meanwhile, Lou, who has separated from his wife Angie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), is suspended after he refuses to support the false account of another officer’s shooting of an unarmed suspect.

Sharon agrees give Mike insider information but after being assaulted by Ormon turns to Lou, whom she has encountered as a part of his investigation. Lou disrupts Mike’s latest robbery but is surprised by the unexpected arrival of Ormon, who shoots one victim and threatens to shoot Lou, and is then shot and killed by Mike.

Lou offers Mike a cover story, and convinces him to run and the victims to cooperate, and he swaps fake diamonds from one of Mike’s previous robberies for the real ones, which he gives to Sharon for a new life. Lou later discovers the vintage car he has been left by Mike before audiences then learn Maya receives one of Mike’s childhood photos, which seems to be his way of asking for a second chance.

Adapter and director Bart Layton more or less manages the crime thriller conventions and conveys a complicated plot although he needs a lengthy run time to do so. His efforts are supported by mostly convincing performances from the lead actors.

The more impressive accomplishment would have been succeeding at the search for meaning story at the center of this movie. This story, in a more compelling script, could have clarified the connection between Mike and Lou and even them to Sharon and perhaps even Lou’s wife Angie.

The biggest obstacle seems to be the character development. Lou seems underdeveloped, but Sharon is probably too two-dimensional. More development of both could have tipped the balance, and shifted the focus from remunerative illegal activity to the challenges of finding meaning in life.

Lou and Sharon attempted to work within established norms but ultimately reject these, and Mike, who had rejected these norm and manages to escape, only does so at Lou’s mercy. Lou’s moral maturation also benefits Sharon directly, and indirectly even himself.

Such an interpretation suggests that Lou is the center of the underlying story. As it is, the focus is somewhat unclear, and makes this movie at most a semi-satisfying crime caper.

The challenges are an already long running time, which has previously been mentioned, and the limits of Hemsworth’s capacity. Would audiences have engaged even longer? Could he contribute to a more emotionally complex story?

These unanswered questions mean that audiences cannot answer the one suggested by the title — does crime in fact pay? An affirmative answer, which this movie seems to suggest, could require a crime introduction course, or least make it an appealing elective.

The movie Islands, which was written by Jan-Ole Gerster, Blaž Kutin, and Lawrie Doran, is an engaging exploration of appearance, reality, and aloneness that never quite coalesces into clear conclusions.

Tom (Sam Riley), a former tennis pro and current resort coach, has an apparently ideal life at least to Canary Islands tourists. The sun is constant, his obligations are limited, and even these can be avoided when he wants. Nevertheless, he suspects that something is missing, especially when a local family, with whom he has become friends, announces their imminent retirement, and return to their former homeland.

Tom soon befriends a family on holiday, who also have their own needs. They’re struggling with infertility, and perhaps infidelity, and as a result questioning their choices, including their marriage. A second child seems to be Ann’s (Stacy Martin) answer, but her husband Dave (Jack Farthing) is less certain of what they’re doing and who they are.

Tom agrees to escort Dave to a nearby club where he disappears. Any uncertainty Tom might have been feeling evaporates as he assists with the search for the missing husband, who had disclosed his suicidal intention to Ann. Tom later supplies a false, and unsolicited, alibi for, and subsequently has sex with, her.

Dave, dehydrated and exhausted, is eventually found while swimming toward a volcano where he intended to throw himself over its crater. Tom and Ann have a moment in the hospital just before she returns to Dave’s side. Tom then returns to his previous life, and recreates a former moment of glory on the courts for the latest group of mouthy, boisterous tourists.

There he passes out, and is found by Dave, who has brought the payment for his son Anton’s tennis lessons and some additional money for Tom’s efforts, including Dave tells him caring for his family. Tom in other words is still hired help whereas Dave, Ann, and their son are returning to their own lives.

Audiences are to be attracted to Tom’s experience, which has the outward appearance of Eden or heaven. The sun is constantly shining. His responsibilities are minimal, especially when he can eat and stay at the resort when he wants. He has a constant churn of female companionship and court-mates.

This movie succeeds as a psychological thriller, and also explores an almost palpable loneliness in all of their lives. Moreover, it suggests that Tom’s desperation isn’t as much malicious as perhaps opportunistic, which makes it all the more poignant.

The ambiguity almost seems borderline excessive, but the only obviously false moment is the conclusion. Tom back in his own apartment is eating the cereal he purchased for Anton when he swipes his wallet and keys and then races to the airport. Once there, he asks if he can still purchase a ticket, which he can, and then is asked to where.

Perhaps he intends to follow this family although that seems less likely than the possibility that he could be fleeing from his unsatisfying life. The details however are wrong. He seems not to have a passport for example perhaps because he in his haste left it at home.

The bigger problem is the emotional resources he will need to leave. Are audiences to think that he is ultimately incapable of escaping as his camel-farm friends did? Or that Tom has acted rashly again?

Even his front desk friend has had enough of his shenanigans. Has he learned anything from escaping his self-manufactured legal jeopardy?

Is his motivation even the point? Perhaps not, the title seems to suggest. Maybe all of us in contrast to the line from the John Donne poem are islands unto ourselves, and perhaps forever are so.

That could be the conclusion of this movie. All the ambiguity while not ruining the experience unfortunately makes that unclear.