Review: Life of Crime

To paraphrase "All you need to make a movie is a gun and a girl" (originally uttered by D.W. Griffith but made famous by Jean-Luc Godard), all you need to make a movie is an Elmore Leonard novel. With his keen ear for dialogue, rollicking pace in unfolding a story and fondness for his merry band of outsiders, it seems all one needs to do is point and shoot.

Yet it helps when a director adds something to the mix. Think of Steven Sodebergh's treatment of Out of Sight - the crackling but melancholy romanticism that permeated the film. Or Quentin Tarantino using Rum Punch to fashion his masterwork Jackie Brown, a loving yet mature nod to Seventies blaxploitation flicks. Director Daniel Schechter doesn't do much with his adaptation of Leonard's The Big Switch; the film stands alongside 2004's The Big Bounce as one of the least successful adaptations of Leonard's work.

A prequel to Rum Punch, Life of Crime finds Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara (played by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro in Jackie Brown, here portrayed by yasiin bey a.k.a. Mos Def and John Hawkes) attempting to put the squeeze on a smarmy real estate developer (Tim Robbins) by kidnapping his neglected trophy wife (Jennifer Aniston). The problem is he doesn't care to get her back, so busy is he between between the legs and other body parts of Melanie (Isla Fisher), his golddigging tart on the side.

The film doesn't really go anywhere from there. Though set in 1978, there's no sense of that era. It's bad timing for Life of Crime to come on the heels of American Hustle. Whatever your opinion of the latter, its energy and unabashed joy in its plot and the characters' hustle and bustle were undeniable. There's a pervading sense of inertia in Life of Crime; it's as if all the air had been sucked out of Leonard's caper and the movie feels vacuum-sealed as a result.

It would have been interesting to see what Aniston and Fisher could have done with each other's roles. Fisher has played this type of role before and though she always does it with verve and zing, it's time for her to move on. Aniston does a fine job as the society wife who discovers a newfound strength in her ordeal. As she's previously displayed in The Good Girl, Friends With Money and Horrible Bosses, she's best when her America's Sweetheart persona is complected with a bit of grit and grime.

Life of Crime

Directed by: Daniel Schechter

Written by: Daniel Schechter, adapted from Elmore Leonard's The Big Switch

Starring: Jennifer Aniston, yasiin bey, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, John Hawkes, Tim Robbins, Mark Boone Junior