'Life Of Crime' - An Oft-Seen Double-Cross Drama

As expected, "Life of Crime" ends with a surprise alliance that makes perfect sense of random justice. Treated as a black-comedy drama, writer-director Daniel Schechter maintains a perfect pulse of humour and suspense, balancing this character-driven caper story with spunky performances by Jennifer Aniston, John Hawkes, Yasin Bey, Tim Robbins, Mark Boone Jr and Isla Fisher.

There's a fine chemistry between each characters but the script does not give them enough space to explore the depth of their relationships, making the entire effort a superficial 'sitcom-ish' farce. The period of the late 1970s is well captured, with good production values and authentic background score.

Unfortunately, this faithful adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1978 released novel "The Switch", which in turn has been inspired by O' Henry's 1907 published short story - "The Ransom of Red Chief", has been beaten to the punch by the similar cultural tropes seen in earlier films like "Too Many Crooks", "Ruthless People", "The Ref" or "Hostile Hostages". Nevertheless, "Life of Crime" is an engaging film, worth a watch on a lazy weekend afternoon.

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