Master thief Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) decides the criminal life might not be for him when his latest caper – hijacking a $3 million delivery in diamonds set up by a dodgy Los Angeles jeweler – ends with him nearly getting a bullet in the head. That’s not his thing. He plans meticulously to avoid violence, leaves no trace of his identity, and makes clean, quick getaways by being close to the 101 freeway.
Trouble is, those are the very characteristics that put LAPD Detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) on his trail. Lubesnick’s colleagues scoff when he lays out a compelling case for a series of jewel heists, each bearing exactly this MO, being the work of a single robber. You think: what’s wrong with these guys? It’s obvious. In the real world, you expect at least a couple of L.A.’s finest to nod in recognition. But that can’t happen, of course. Lubesnick has to be reduced to the stereotypical discredited lone wolf, pursuing the bad guy while the rest of the force (metaphorically, of course) eat donuts. What else? He’s trying to change up his life with yoga lessons after a fractious split with wife Angela (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Davis is an odd duck. Bare apartment, no friends, laconic to the point of being nearly mute at times. He tries to turn over a new leaf by getting a girlfriend. And by turning down what he considers a dicey job from his fence, Money (Nick Nolte). Money gives the job to Ormon (Barry Keoghan), who is apparently not on drugs, but acts like it as he makes a violent spectacle out of knocking over the shop and obsessively tracking down Davis in a quest to become the next top dog.
Sitting in the middle of the action is insurance agent Sharon Combs (Halle Berry). She’s doing a balancing act, trying to land a new billionaire client, investigate that dodgy jeweler whose explanations seem a bit defensive, puzzle out whether a yoga encounter with Lubesnick’s a coincidence, and understand why her boss is still deflecting her request for a partnership even though she has been the firm’s top performers for years. None of it’s going well, and that leaves her frustrated, pissed … and vulnerable to an unexpected offer.
Oh, the plot gets even more convoluted from here, and all these characters collide in a hotel room as that billionaire, who has a hand in the quest for the jewels, is prepping to wed his trophy bride.
See It
The character of Mike Davis owes a lot to the iconic performance by Ryan Gosling in the 2011 flick Drive. If Hemsworth weren’t so handsome, he’d be more believable as the loner who doesn’t know what to say when he’s trying to hit on the pretty girl who re-ended his car. The key in this type of predictable caper is that you have to wind up rooting for this bad guy to somehow survive and maybe even not wind up in jail. Hemsworth pulls that off well enough.
Mark Ruffalo as the schlumpy detective owes a lot to perpetually raincoat-clad Columbo. He’s mostly garbed in suit and tie, but he’s always on cue with the inconvenient questions, acting genuinely puzzled when even his own partner can’t buy his iron-clad logic, or agree to do the right thing when the going gets tough.
Halle Berry must spend most of her onscreen time biting back her frustration with slimy clients, even slimier bosses, and cops and robbers who are dangling temptations in front of her. But, ho boy, when she does unload on that boss, it’s a stellar moment. You want to applaud.
Gravel-voiced Nick Nolte and Jennifer Jason Leigh do what they do best in their cameo-sized parts: add a pinch or two of eccentricity to the goings-on.
The standout performance? The guy you like the least: Ormon. Barry Keoghan turns in an all-out performance as the psychopath who is out of control, batshit crazy the entire duration. You hate the character, but love the performance.
It all adds up to a satisfying crime drama. You care about the good guys and even root for one of the bad guys. Yes, the gunplay finale is ridiculously staged. And it ends just a bit too long of the mark, missing a chance to conclude on a mildly ambiguous but satisfying note with that scene of a car traveling north on the 101. But I’ll forgive the hokey feel-good moments at the end, which feel like something the studio insisted on adding for those of us who can’t be satisfied without a final grin or two.