Life of Crime is fine. Characters are played gamely; costumes are pleasingly authentic; the story… proceeds. Really, this isn’t one for superlative adjectives.

Fleetingly snappy – the minimum requirement for an Elmore Leonard adaptation – Robbins and Hawkes have an especially good go of it, but initial sparks soon fall away to well-dressed mundanity.

At its best, a line of dialogue resonates or Tim Robbins may bring to mind Danny DeVito in Ruthless People. But where that had a wicked sense of humour and a positively unhinged Bette Midler, Life of Crime too often opts for the straight and narrow.

With a cast this good, to be this lifeless is criminal.

RATING: 2/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes

DIRECTOR: Daniel Schechter

WRITERS: Daniel Schechter (screenplay), Elmore Leonard (novel)

SYNOPSIS: Hoping to extort one million dollars, two ex-cons kidnap the wife of real-estate tycoon Frank Dawson only to discover there is little desire to settle the ransom on his end.