Movie Review: Life of Crime

By Sandipan Dalal

Genre: Drama

Rating: ***1/2

Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Isla Fisher,Tim Robbins, John Hawkes

Direction: Daniel Schecter

Language: English

Prepared to get entertained as malfeasance and mirth come together in this film, which is set in 1978 Detroit. Petty criminals Louis (Hawkes) and Ordell (Bey aka Mos Def) set out to kidnap Mickey Dawson (Aniston), wife of millionaire businessman Frank Dawson (Robbins) in order to get $1 million from his illegal assets stashed away in the Bahamas.

Louis and Ordell team up with a nutty Richard Monk (Mark Boone Junior) who opens to them his firearm collection and suburban house where they dump their captive Mrs Dawson. From the abduction to knocking out a surprise guest Marshal (a friend of the Dawsons), all goes well till a ransom call made to Frank doesn't yield the kind of response they had expected.

Excellent casting, clever plot (which is based on Elmore Leonard's The Switch), and Schechter's recreation of America in the 70s are some of the good things about this film.

Aniston plays her part of a trophy (and bored) wife who has been withstanding humiliation and abuse from her alcoholic husband to perfection. She makes you crack up more so after she's held hostage by the culprits. Yasiin Bey, John Hawkes and Mark Boone Junior portray their parts of low lives convincingly and to some extent add to the humorous effect.

However, the film's major flaw continues to be the lack of tension in a kidnap drama, and the fact that the abductors are anything but menacing. Schechter surely disappoints on that account. Still, it makes for a good one-time watch.

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