Life of Crime

Two small-time crooks (played by Yasiin Bey and John Hawkes) decide they're going to abduct the wife of a crooked apartment developer (played by Jennifer Aniston and Tim Robbins) and ransom her for $1 million. Things naturally do not go according to plan. Problems range from Robbins already having planned to divorce her, to his mistress getting involved to protect her interests, to the guy whose house they stash Aniston at being a Nazi sympathizer and an attempted rapist.

The scene near the end when he does try to assault Aniston is odd, if only because the movie has sort of played things relaxed and almost comical for long stretches up to then. Like he tries to peep through a hole he drilled in the wall and she jams a lit cigarette into his eye and Bey makes jokes about it. Robbins is down in the Caribbean being manipulated by his mistress like a goober. Will Forte plays some associate of Robbins and Aniston's who clearly is trying to have an affair with her. He shows up during the abduction, and then is more concerned that someone might figure out he was there than in telling anyone she's been taken. Aniston is obviously frightened early on, enough she meekly complies with their commands, but it settles into something more amicable after that. 

Hawkes and Aniston have several conversations about his life, and how she's certain that her husband won't pay the ransom. He brings her dinner on a tray and is polite about it. When she removes some of the tape over her mask to cover the peephole and sees his face, he's sort of annoyed, but he doesn't rage at her or make threats or anything. She's their hostage, but it's mostly very chill. Then the movie goes, "Wait, this is actually not a chill situation, she's a hostage, that should be scary." 

However, even though he never actually lays a hand on her, it's not even subtext that Robbins is an abusive husband. When Aniston asks him to let her drive, because he's been drinking to celebrate winning some golf thing at their country club, he drives recklessly while berating her for always keeping track of how much he drinks. He hits her car, then blames her for parking in the driveway. When she shouts she won't ride with him ever again, he marches back to the car and she flinches back as he reaches in to grab his ugly trophy. (He also publicly refers to her as his 'other trophy,' so real winner there.) So a big, drunk asshole snarling at her to take off her clothes is probably not a new experience.

But then the last 15-20 minutes of the movie after the assault are kind of ridiculous, so I don't know exactly what to make of it. It's not quite that everyone's a dumbass or neurotic like Fargo, so it isn't a dark comedy. But it's a little too relaxed or silly in places to feel like a crime movie. Forte's attempts to disguise his presence at the house could come off as sinister, but instead is just kind of pitiful. Comedy. But Bey's character feels like a competent, careful criminal who just picked the right target at the wrong time. Heist gone wrong crime movie. I'm not sure the two halves mix all that well.