“Crime 101” sounds like the title of a cute caper movie, but this movie isn’t cute. It’s an underworld melodrama focused on a mysterious thief (Chris Hemsworth), a police detective obsessed with catching him (Mark Ruffalo), and an insurance broker (Halle Berry) whose company must pay out settlements to the people the thief has stolen from. The number in the title refers to the 101 Freeway in Southern California, the main artery that bears the thief to and from his targets. It has two first-rate car chases; luxurious cinematography that transforms Los Angeles into a city of dark magic; and a script filled with memorable supporting characters, including an ambitious young psycho played by Barry Keoghan; an elderly crime boss played by Nick Nolte; and a goodhearted young woman played by Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown“) who falls for the thief without knowing what he does for a living.

The movie drops us into the story without preamble and lets us figure out what’s going on. Hemsworth’s character, Mike Davis, is driving around L.A., shadowing some crooks who are transporting pricey jewels to a criminal buyer. His plan is to interrupt the exchange and take the jewels for himself, and he does – until the tables turn and he’s so shocked that he’s forced to abort the mission. That doesn’t please his patron, a legendary underworld figure known only by his street name, Money (Nolte).

Although Money reassures Mike that he’s not in trouble for failing to follow through, he then gives the next big job, the robbery of jewels kept in a vault at a high-end jewelry store, to another of his guys, Ormon (Keoghan), a smug young man with spiky bleached hair and what turn out to be serious impulse control problems. We never get into the details of Money’s operation, but we infer from his conversations with Mike and Ormon that he’s a sinister father figure to troubled boys, grooming them into loyal personal soldiers.

Berry’s character, Sharon Colvin, works for the company that insured the jewels Mike robbed from the robbers. The jeweler who set up the original crime, Sammy Kassem (Payman Maadi), is the client her firm is supposed to pay. She’s been with the company for over a decade, is the only woman on staff of any significance, and is on deck to become a full partner, so it’s crucial that she deal with this swiftly at the same time that she’s trying to close an insurance policy on an arrogant billionaire.

Sharon is immediately suspicious of Sammy and tries to enlist the detective, her old pal Lou Lubesnick (Ruffalo), to turn up the heat by declaring the jeweler a suspect and making him take a polygraph test.

There’s a lot more going on with all the characters, and the movie gives them space to breathe, interact, and worry about more than the challenges that are right in front of them. This is a recurring motif that develops and expands throughout the movie, with conversations about free will and fate, and about how the cult of individuality, when practiced widely, has a destructive impact on society.

Hemsworth continues to prove that of all the screen actors so conventionally handsome that they could have been created in a lab to play superheroes, he’s the most versatile. We sometimes can see the deprived and neglected boy inside this man, even when he’s at his most intimidating. Mike is carrying around traumas he won’t reveal. Like, ever. This is a film that respects viewers enough to let them infer what isn’t shown or discussed.

Ruffalo’s unpredictable approach to this character is delightful. Lou speaks softly and nearly always has a faint smile on his face and a happy gleam in his eye, even when he’s being challenged, insulted, or threatened. He has terrible posture and doesn’t so much walk as shamble, and he clearly takes great pride in his ability to verbally sucker-punch a suspect with a question that wipes the smirk off their face.

This is a special movie. It has a life force unlike any other crime thriller you’ve seen. It’s about characters who suffer a personal failure but emerge transformed. It’s a violent movie, but not a cruel one, and unexpectedly moving by the end.