'Crime 101' tries to generate a little 'Heat'

Chris Hemsworth stars in a smart, sleek L.A. crime thriller

The best moments in “Crime 101” come when Chris Hemsworth is behind the wheel of a car. (Amazon MGM Studios)

There’s a banger of a car chase midway through “Crime 101.” Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is pursuing rival thief Ormon (Barry Keoghan) through the streets of Los Angeles at night. The action is seemingly all shot practically, with Ormon’s motorcycle and Davis’ Dodge Challenger weaving through the streets, all revving engines and squealing tires.

Then a streetcar stops between them, blocking Davis’ path and seemingly ending the chase. But when the streetcar finally moves, we see Ormon behind it, waiting. He doesn’t want the chase to be over. Neither do we.

Slick and sleek, “Crime 101” is a crime thriller that gives fans a lot of what they want, with a stacked cast, well-orchestrated heist sequences, and a sprawling Los Angeles as its canvas. While it can’t escape comparisons to a true masterpiece like “Heat,” writer-director Bart Layton’s film effectively stakes out some of its own turf.

Chris Hemsworth plays Davis, a meticulous jewel thief who has been committing a rash of robberies in the city. He never wavers from his M.O. – he robs couriers transporting diamonds, never uses violence, and picks locations near Highway 101 for easy escape. (“Crime 101” – get it?)

But after things go dangerously awry in the heist that opens the film, Davis is thinking about retiring. Although he doesn’t have a life to retire to – no family, no friends, and not quite enough money in the bank. I’m no detractor of Hemsworth – I thought he was severely underrated in “Furiosa” – but he doesn’t quite have the presence on screen to carry off everything the role requires. I believe him as a cool jewel thief barreling through the streets of L.A. I don’t believe him as an emotionally stunted loner hinting at childhood trauma to the woman he’s dating (Monica Barbaro).

Mark Ruffalo, looking like an unmade bed in a cheap suit, plays Lou, the one detective on the force who sees Davis’ pattern but can’t convince his superiors to take his theory seriously. Caught in between is Sharon (Halle Berry), an insurance appraiser who is growing tired of kowtowing to billionaire fat cats (Tate Donovan makes a great slimeball) and the executive-suite bros at her firm who won’t make her partner.

And there’s the Ormon, played by Keoghan as an unpredictable live wire – the chaos to Davis’ order. When Davis tells his benefactor, aptly nicknamed Money (Nick Nolte) that he’s getting out of the game after one last job, Money brings in Ormon. After Davis robs the courier, Ormon will rob Davis.

A bleached-blond Barry Keoghan plays a sociopathic rival trying to cut in on the action. (Amazon MGM Studios)

Writer-director Bart Layton, adapting Don Winslow’s novella, sets all these characters on a slow-motion collision course with each other. Early in the film, he even does this nifty thing where characters will pass each other on the street before they’ve ever met, suggesting that they’re all on trajectories that they don’t even realize that will inevitably converge.

“Crime 101” is an effective leap into mainstream Hollywood filmmaking for Layton, who previously made the cinematic documentary “The Imposter” and the narrative-documentary hybrid heist film “American Animals” (also with Keoghan). He knows how to build suspense, but he also knows how to let a scene breathe, give a minor character more textures than one might expect.

This might make “Crime 101” seem a little long for some at 139 minutes, and a little light on action. After all the buildup (and those two terrific car chases at the beginning and the middle of the movie), the finale feels a little underwhelming, the resolution a little too pat.

Still, I’ll take all of the smart, well-made heist movies I can get. And Los Angeles has a lot more freeways to build a sequel around.

“Crime 101” opens Friday in theaters. In Madison, it will play at Marcus Point, Marcus Palace, AMC Fitchburg 18 and Flix Brewhouse Madison.