Crime 101

Like daily traffic on the eponymous California highway, Crime 101 takes a long time to get to nowhere in particular.

This slick and stylish potboiler does bring the Heat in unintended ways, feeling like an imitation of Michael Mann’s crackling 1995 crime thriller, but otherwise isn’t as cool or sophisticated as intended.

Capturing a certain throwback noir-infused throwback vibe, the film depicts a white-collar world of capitalist greed and bureaucratic corruption, and the morally ambiguous opportunists on the margins trying to take advantage. Everyone, it seems, is shady or unscrupulous to some degree.

It follows intertwined stories of people on both sides of the law in Los Angeles, starting with Davis (Chris Hemsworth), a cunning jewel thief who’s latest heist whose latest heist involves intercepting a low-level courier.

Davis wants to step back and settle down with an alluring stranger (Monica Barbaro) he meets during a fender-bender, but that causes friction with his grizzled boss (Nick Nolte), who hires an impulsive young biker (Barry Keoghan) in retaliation.

Meanwhile, Lou (Mark Ruffalo) is investigating Davis and his pattern of crimes on behalf of the LAPD, along with his partner (Corey Hawkins), but his efforts go unrewarded by his impatient superiors looking for positive PR above anything else.

Then there’s Sharon (Halle Berry), an agent writing lucrative insurance policies for a firm catering to the wealthy and elite. Yet she’s become more disenfranchised due to the lack of a promotion she’s been promised. That’s makes her more likely to spill some ethical secrets when Lou comes snooping around.

The character-driven screenplay by director Bart Layton (American Animals), adapted from a novella by Don Winslow (Savages) becomes convoluted while bogging down in dead-end subplots and logical inconsistencies.

Although it’s mildly clever and suspenseful, the film never provides sufficient incentive for emotional investment in the central case, who’s right and wrong, and whether justice is ultimately served. Maybe that’s not the point.

Along the way, however, it squanders a top-notch ensemble cast in a progressively contrived maze of deception, betrayal, cloudy motives, and shifting loyalties. Ruffalo and Berry are the standouts, playing characters caught in the middle.

Some sharply crafted set pieces and confrontations enliven the proceedings, but Crime 101 mostly plays out like material we’ve seen done before, and better.

Rated R, 140 minutes.