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THIS WEEK St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 NT Live presents A Streetcar Named Desire 17:00 NT Live presents Medea 20:30 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Dolphin Tale 2 (U) 10:30, 13:45, 16:15, 18:40, 21:05 Lucy (15) 10:00, 14:15, 16:25, 18:40, 20:50 The Boxtrolls (U) 10:30, 16:10, 18:30 Sex Tape (15) 10:00, 12:15, 14:30, 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Before I Go to Sleep (15) 20:50 The Equalizer (15) 10:00, 12:45, 15:30, 18:20, 21:10 A Walk Among the Tombstones (15) 13:15, 16:00, 18:35, 21:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 A Walk Among the Tombstones (15) 14:00, 16:25, 18:50, 21:15, 23:45 Dolphin Tale 2 (U) 14:00, 16:15, 18:30, 20:50, 23:15 Let's be Cops (15) 14:10, 16:25, 18:50, 21:10, 23:35 What If? (15) 14:05, 16:15, 18:30, 21:10, 23:20 Step Up 5: All In (PG) 20:45, 23:10 The Boxtrolls (U) 14:10, 16:20, 18:30, 20:45, 22:55 Life of Crime (15) 14:25, 16:30, 18:35, 20:55, 23:05 Lucy (15) 14:20, 16:25, 18:50, 21:05, 23:10 Into the Storm (12A) 14:20, 16:20, 18:40, 20:55, 23:05 Sex Tape (15) 14:20, 16:30, 18:50, 21:00, 23:05 As Above So Below (15) 14:15, 16:20, 18:45, 21:15, 23:20 Bright Days Ahead (15) 14:20, 16:30, 18:50, 21:00, 23:15 The Equalizer (15) 14:30, 18:00, 20:50, 23:35 Guardians of the Galaxy (12A) 14:30, 18:15, 20:45, 23:15 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Lucy (15) 11:10, 13:30, 15:53, 18:00, 20:53 Dolphin Tale 2 (U) 11:00, 13:30, 15:50, 18:10, 20:45 A Walk Among the Tombstones (15) 11:05, 13:35, 16:00, 18:25, 20:50 The Equalizer (15) 11:15, 14:00, 18:00, 20:45 UPANDCOMING indie writer- director Daniel Schechter takes on one of the most enduring lit- erary cash cows in Hollywood to produce a stylish – though at this point, sadly not all that lucrative – crime-comedy, set in the 70s and featuring an ensemble cast of char- acter actors. Adapting Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch (1978) and featuring characters we last saw in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown (1997), this kidnapping-cum-marital breakdown caper perhaps burns too slowly and melds its 'hyphen- ate' genre mix a tad too subtly for contemporary audiences, if its mis- erable box office performance thus far is to be taken as a real measure of consensus. But though it's not perfect, I'd hate to live in a world where films like Life of Crime don't get a chance, as they're edged out by a slew of transforming robots and superheroes. It certainly offers up a devilishly delectable premise. Sleazy and tax-dodging business- man Frank Dawson (Tim Robbins) heads off to the Bahamas, ostensi- bly for a business trip but really as an excuse to oversee his illicitly- ballooning wealth and spend some quality time with his mistress, the buxom Melanie (Isla Fisher). This leaves his put-upon wife Mickey (Jennifer Aniston) alone at home and vulnerable to the schemes of two potential kidnap- pers, Ordell Robbie (Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def) and Louis Gara (John Hawkes), who threaten to kill Mickey if Frank doesn't fork out $1 million for her safe return. But as my colleague Raphael Vassallo likes to say, "small prob- lem". Frank is actually not all that fussed about Mickey's safety – he intends to divorce her the second he's back. As the men circle around this awkward attempt at extortion – against their better judgement, Ordell and Robbie have also en- listed the help of unhinged white supremacist Richard (Mark Boone Junior) – the women on both sides of the equation turn out to be far more resourceful than they let on. Life of Crime in some way serves as a prequel to Jackie Brown – the latter was adapted, with a black- sploitation re-jig, from the 1992 Leonard novel Rum Punch and follows chronologically from The Switch – but apart from the trade- mark swagger of most Leonard adaptations, this is a far mellower beast. For one thing, Ordell and Louis come across as an entirely more relaxed pair than their previous cinematic counterparts. Played by Tarantino stalwart Samuel L. Jack- son, 'Brown's Ordell bordered on the sadistic. The current version is no less amoral, but any displays of outward viciousness remain verbal, or delegated to secondary charac- ters like Boone Junior's shambling neo-Nazi firearm-hoarder ("He's so dumb, it's adorable," Ordell tells Louis at one point). Bey plays him as you'd expect 'Mos Def ' to play him – a hint of a mischievous smile at every turn, an urbane, but never showy, way with words – and this turns out to be more than enough. Paired with Hawks, probably one of the hardest working character ac- tors in recent years, he goes down a treat. Hawks certainly makes Louis feel a tad more vital than his predeces- sor Robert De Niro did (to be fair, De Niro could be said to be play- ing a later, more decrepit version of the character). There's hints of a Stockholm Syndrome romance as Louis is clearly shown to be enam- oured by Aniston's Mickey, and it's to the Hawks's credit that it never devolves into pervy leering (that role is, once again, relegated to our dear Richard – a creation so un- pleasant he may as well be a horror antagonist ala Leatherface). But it's the women who give way to the most satisfying plot devel- opments, showing up their male counterparts to be, at best, bad planners and at worst, fumbling ignoramuses, blinded by greed and ego. Though Mickey is an infuriat- ingly passive presence at first, it's a pleasure to see her morph behind our own backs. She realises that screaming won't help, and that she'd have to play her cars right. Though she's a far more Machi- avellian creature, Fisher's Melanie also steps up her game, to amusing effect, only in the final act. This is, after all, a story of revenge and ex- tortion that is too stylish for hys- terics and excessive blood-letting. In fact, the mood's the thing, re- ally. It would be a sin not to com- mend the team behind the bare- bones visual construction of the film. Cinematographer Eric Alan Edwards, costume designer Anna Terrazas and set designer Jasmine E. Ballou create a seamless and en- veloping 1970s vibe, browns and yellows perfectly accentuating the film's easy-as-Sunday-morning feel and pace. Its crisp look comes close to matching the water-tight construction of a Coen Bros. pro- duction… though perhaps the comparison does more harm than good to the film as a whole. Schechter goes for the same blackly humorous approach to the Coen's Fargo (1996) – botched home invasion and all – but a few loose ends mark him out as a be- ginner. An early chat between Mickey and her young son Bo (Charlie Tahan) appears to be setting up a bona fide emotional arc, but it never gets resolved. A subplot involving fellow socialite Marshall Taylor (Will Forte) – an uptight beta male keen to get into Mickey's pants – likewise gets short shrift, serving as little more than a plot device. maltatoday, SUNDAY, 5 OCTOBER 2014 35 FILM IN CINEMAS TODAY By Teodor Reljic Every kidnapper has his day... and how THIS WEEK ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ PRIME ★ ★ ★ ★ SWEET TIME ★ ★ ★ DIME ★ ★ CRIME ★ SLIME Home invasion: John Hawkes sneaks up on put-upon housewife Jennifer Aniston in this slow-burning but enjoyable crime-comedy caper LIFE OF CRIME (15) ★ ★ ★