Like the unseasonable weather, this late-summer arrival is a breezy and cool affair. Based on the Elmore Leonard novel “The Switch,” it’s a comic noir in which two low-level criminals, Ordell (Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def) and Louis (John Hawkes) attempt a kidnapping and extortion scam.
The duo talks a good game — the ’70s-set film opens on their plotting a heist in a dive bar — but are clearly amateurs: Louis is shaken down for his wallet’s contents on a trip to the bathroom.
Their mark is corrupt real-estate developer Frank (Tim Robbins), whose wife Mickey (Jennifer Aniston in a brassy blond dye job) is weary of her husband’s drunken boorishness. As it turns out, he’s also got a mistress (Isla Fisher) and divorce papers already in the works; a call from kidnappers is, in a twist reminiscent of the dark ’80s comedy “Ruthless People,” an easy out for Frank.
Director Daniel Schechter (“Supporting Characters”) moves the plot along in a loose, unhurried manner, letting the cast enjoy Leonard’s delicious dialogue. Will Forte, as a married man who’s got eyes for Mickey, is a study in creepy cowardice as he witnesses her abduction and fails to notify anyone. And Mark Boone Junior (“Sons of Anarchy”) is great as the neo-Nazi lout providing the muscle for the kidnappers; “he’s so dumb it’s adorable,” says Ordell, rolling his eyes at the roomfuls of swastikas and racist mantras.
This is a choice part for Aniston, whose character’s beaten-down demeanor at the start is slowly replaced by the urge to fight back — initially against her captors (particularly Boone, into whose peephole she inserts a lit cigarette) and eventually against her awful spouse. On the other side is Fisher as Frank’s sleazy paramour, Melanie, who turns out to be more than the sum of her tiny outfits.
But Leonard’s words feel most at home coming from Bey and Hawkes, both smart and subtle performers. Interestingly, these characters were played in Quentin Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown” by Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro, a very different pair. I prefer this version: less bombastic, a little more fumbling, somewhat difficult to read.
Schechter’s soul-scored film is impeccably styled for the time period, and its easy pacing reminds me of the gold standard for Leonard adaptations, “Out of Sight.” It’s not that good, but it’s within striking distance.