Life of Crime | |
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Theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Daniel Schechter |
Produced by |
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Written by | Daniel Schechter |
Based on |
The Switch by Elmore Leonard |
Starring | |
Music by |
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Cinematography | Eric Alan Edwards |
Edited by | Daniel Schechter |
Production
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Distributed by | |
Release date
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Running time
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99 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $12 million |
Box office | $1.5 million |
Life of Crime is a 2013 American crime comedy film written and directed by Daniel Schechter, based on Elmore Leonard's novel The Switch (1978), which includes characters later revisited in his novel Rum Punch (1992), which was adapted into the Quentin Tarantino film Jackie Brown (1997). Life of Crime was screened on the closing night 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, on the opening day of the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, at the 2014 Traverse City Film Festival and released in theaters on August 29, 2014.
In Detroit in 1978, stoic socialite Mickey Dawson becomes the target of an ill-planned kidnapping plot by a pair of fumbling ex-cons, Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. However, things quickly become complicated for the duo when they discover her wealthy husband, Frank, refuses to pay the ransom, as he is on the cusp of filing for divorce to make way for his younger mistress, Melanie Ralston. The two kidnappers have to figure out how to quickly turn the tables on their predicament before their time runs out.
Dennis Quaid was originally cast as Frank Dawson, Mickey's husband.
Principal photography lasted 26 days. The major portion of the film was shot in Greenwich, Connecticut. Three time Academy Award nominee Tod A. Maitland did the sound mixing.
Life of Crime has received generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 65% based on reviews from 74 critics, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus reads: "It may not stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best Elmore Leonard adaptations, but Life of Crime has enough ambling charm—and a sharp enough cast—to get by."Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from 1 to 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gave the film a 60 based on 28 critics.