The award-winning late author, Elmore Leonard, has been the source of some of the most memorable crime films to have graced the silver screen, including adaptations such as Get Shorty (1995), Jackie Brown (1997) and Out of Sight (1998). What’s more, as can be seen in the ongoing critically acclaimed series, Justified, Leonard’s work has made for some great television as well.

Of course, not every sharply written novel by Leonard has made for a successful adaption, and over the years, some filmmakers have struggled to translate Leonard’s gritty work. Directed by Daniel Schechter, and based on Leonard’s excellent 1978 dark crime novel, The Switch, Life of Crime isn’t quite a struggle, but neither is it quite the great sendoff that Leonard deserved. Not that the film doesn’t have its moments though.

Charmingly, Life of Crime is set in the ’70s, and features some amusing sequences that take advantage of its witty dialogue and experienced cast. This includes acting warhorses such as Jennifer Aniston (Mickey Dawson) and Tim Robins (Frank Dawson). Here, the duo plays a couple stuck in a bad marriage where Frank Dawson, an unlikeable and corrupt real estate developer, is emotionally abusive towards his family. Meanwhile, Mickey Dawson lacks a backbone, and doesn’t know, or perhaps doesn’t wish to acknowledge the hard truth of her husband’s crookedness, or his adultery. Meanwhile, Frank’s mistress Melanie Ralston (Isla Fisher), is certainly more streetwise than his wife, but isn’t very loyal to Frank either.

The dark crime thriller about a typical dysfunctional American family is what Life of Crime is all about!

Spicing things up are another duo, Ordell Robbie (Yasiin Bey, or as rap fans would know him, Mos Def) and Louis Gara (John Hawkes). A couple of hustlers, the two criminals concoct a plan, together with the assistance of the pro-Nazi Richard (Mark Boone Jr.), to kidnap Mickey and then use her, as well as an inside knowledge into Frank’s corruption, to extort the real estate developer into paying a million dollars in ransom. Of course, the film offers an amusing twist when the kidnappers learn that Frank, who was ready to divorce his wife, isn’t all that interested in listening to their demands.

The Switch is considered to be one of the more comical novels by Leonard, and for the most part, this humour works in Life of Crime. Unfortunately, the tonal changes in the film make for awkward viewing, and a short attempted physical abuse scene towards the end of the film is particularly uncomfortable to watch. What’s more, while the acting in Life of Crime is generally top drawer, and the many narrative twists keep the film ticking, Jennifer Aniston doesn’t quite carry the capacity to make her character a compelling one. Like Mickey Dawson, Aniston is strangely muted, and an interesting character rather than a great one. Similarly, like an old revolver, Life of Crime is a serviceable film that can be admired for its substance, but ultimately it lacks the punch of a truly memorable crime film.

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA): Rated R for language, some sexual content and violence

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 19th, 2014