Crime 101 Is About 30 Minutes Too Long, And There Was Such A Simple Way To Shorten It

WARNING: There are some major spoilers for Crime 101.

I’ll come right out and say it: I didn’t like Crime 101, the latest book-to-screen adaptation on the 2026 movie schedule. I love a great heist movie, but this one didn’t steal my heart in any way, and that goes double for the love story between Mike (Chris Hemsworth) and Maya (Monica Barbaro). The official runtime of the movie is 2 hours and 20 minutes, and had it been 30 minutes shorter, I might have liked it more. I didn’t time anything, but I’d bet removing the awkward romance would have taken care of that time quite nicely.

The Romance Wasn’t Needed At All

Nothing about the movie’s central plot, or Mike's motivations, would have changed had the whole romance been left on the cutting room floor. There was never a time in the movie where I felt like Mike was ever invested in the relationship, but at the same time, there were moments where the movie seemed to make you want to believe he was. Mike wanted to do that once last score because he wanted out of the game, not because he wanted to run away with Maya or anything.

Maya had nothing to do with the heist Mike conceived along with Sharon (Halle Berry), and she really didn’t seem to fit into Mike’s life at all. Early in the movie, we see Mike with a prostitute, and while that scene was also unnecessary, at least that arrangement seemed to be a natural one for a career criminal trying not to draw the attention of the authorities (or anyone else, for that matter). This is a guy who doesn’t have a family or any kind of public profile at all. His only “friends” are the other crooks he works with. The movie would have been fine without Mike trying to find love, too.

The Relationship Was Awkward And Forced

There is nothing in the romance that seems natural at all. Maya is immediately suspicious of Mike, or at least skeptical of him, and she tries to leave before the first date has really even started. Still, they stick it out, and the movie wants you to believe that they start to fall in love. Even though Maya is constantly looking for a way out. It’s an awkward romance at best, but most of the time, it just doesn’t make sense. As the film dragged on, I got more and more annoyed with it.

Worst, in the end, Mike and Maya’s romance comes to nothing. They break up (even though it seems like it’s only been a few days in movie time), and Maya moves on with her life. Mike, in one of his moves after his successful heist, sends her a photo of him as a kid, after she complained earlier in the movie that she knew nothing about him, despite supposedly being in love with him. They don’t end up together, and in the end, the relationship had literally no effect on the outcome of the heist or Mike and Maya’s lives.

It's Almost Like They Knew The Romance Didn't Work

I like Monica Barbaro (she killed it in 2024's A Complete Unknown), and I like Chris Hemsworth (who we'll see later this year in Avengers: Doomsday), but it seemed like there was no chemistry in their onscreen romance, either. I think both do decent work in the movie, but at times it seems like even they knew the romance was stilted and without allure, but not in a “will they or won’t way,” just awkwardly and uncomfortably.

Even going back to when the first trailer dropped last fall, Barbaro is barely in it. Even more, the trailer sets the viewer up to believe that the romance will be between the insurance agent Sharon and the thief, Mike, ala The Thomas Crown Affair, which is even name-dropped in the trailer (and the movie) as well. Seriously, go back and watch the trailer and tell me it doesn't completely mislead about where the romance is going to happen.

I'm not saying there even needs to be any romance in the movie at all. There are plenty of great heist movies devoid of a love story. Besides, we're getting another version of The Thomas Crown Affair in the next year or so, so just leave it to Michael B. Jordan and company. The whole thing just left me frustrated.

It Pretty Much Ruined The Movie For Me

It really took away from the potential thrill of the movie for me. A lot is going on in the movie, from Mike's troubled relationship with his mentor, played by Nick Nolte, to Sharon's frustrations with her job, to the cop chasing Mike down, played by Mark Ruffalo. This tacked-on romance just doesn't work in the greater context of the film, and instead drags the movie in multiple ways, not the least of which is the runtime.

There are some fantastic action sequences, some good car chases, and enough of a backstory with Mike that the pointless love story pretty much ruined the movie for me. This isn't the kind of movie that I look for a lot of depth in, I just wanna chomp some popcorn and be dazzled by the action. Instead, I got grumpy whenever Mike and Maya had a perplexing argument with each other. Was there any love, anyway? They are always upset with each other.

While I realize it’s unrealistic to cut a fantastic talent like Barbaro completely out of the movie, and I don't mean any disrespect to her as an actor, it would have served the story better if they had left the character on the cutting room floor. The good news is that Barbaro will be back on the big screen later this year in a movie that looks like a lot more fun for fans of traditional rom coms, One Night Only, co-starring Callum Turner.