Unlike The Coen’s brothers’ masterpiece “Fargo”, I wasn’t swept away by “Life of Crime”, a movie with similar plot.  I certainly appreciate the 1970s period flavor, the funny dialogue in writer/director Daniel Schechter’s screenplay, and the showcase it provides for a group of talented actors. However, about halfway through the movie I came to the realization that I didn’t care about any of these people. Like so many films I’ve seen this summer, “Life of Crime” is a movie in which the parts are greater than the whole. That’s too bad, because it has a solid premise: A couple of pretty “clever” bad guys (Mos Def and John Hawkes) are planning to kidnap a married woman (Jennifer Aniston) and demand a million bucks in ransom from her rich douchy husband, Frank (Tim Robbins). The plan goes down the drain when Frank refuses to pay them. Unlike the far superior “Fargo”, “Life of Crime” settles for formula way too early and never reaches a satisfying conclusion.  Perhaps if writer-director Daniel Schechter had approached his material in a more unpredictable manner the movie would have been better, and as a result, more rewarding. But in spite of its talented cast, the picture gave me no one to root for, so at the end, I felt nothing.

Rating: 2/4