Life of Crime

Plot

Two small time thieves in 1978 decide to kidnap the wife of a wealthy businessman; however, they didn’t count on one thing – he is having an affair and has just filed divorce papers. Now they have to try to bargain with him, and his mistress to get the $1m ransom.

Direction

Sound direction, but at times I didn’t feel the “1978” timeline setting was truly accurate.

Cast/Characters

Fairly stacked cast with Jennifer Aniston playing ‘Mickey’ Dawson the kidnapping victim. I think Aniston is a fine actor, and has shed her persona from ‘that’ show in so many films. Here she was, just okay.

Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and John Hawkes play the primary kidnappers, Ordell and Louis, with Mark Boone Jr playing their accomplice Richard. All three have done great work previously, and here – like Aniston are only okay.

Tim Robbins plays Mickey’s husband Frank, and Isla Fisher plays his mistress Melanie. Robbins felt a little underused, but I particularly liked Fishers character arc however.

Will Forte plays the character of Marshall, a friend of Frank and Mickey, who is in love with Mickey – and witness to her kidnap, but can’t call the police because it will reveal his feelings.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

The screenplay mostly works well, and is quite funny. While the primary premise has been done before, so have what follows – with one of the kidnappers falling for the victim, and some Stockholm Syndrome in return.

It tried to blend comedy/drama a little strangely at times, especially in one scene in which Richard – a neo nazi tries to rape Mickey.

The ‘period’ setting seemed fairly on point, and the set designs with the yellows and browns were done well, as well as the constant smoking by the characters.

There were also so much double crosses, it was a little hard to work out who was playing who at some points, and I quite liked the ‘set up’ in the final few moments of the film that could have led to a sequel. This really brought the third act back, as it fell apart a little in the last half an hour or so.

Overall

With a fairly stock standard plot, some only so so performances this was ‘just okay’. Not a fail by a long shot, but not something I would watch again or put on a recommend list. It’s fine if you just need to kill two hours.

3/5