The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne

Doris Payne does not fit the stereotypical image of a notorious jewel thief: an octogenarian African-American woman from West Virginia, Payne enjoyed a 60-year run that netted more than $2 million in jewelry. Payne's unlikely story seems tailor-made for the screen—at one point, a biopic starring Halle Berry was being talked up in the Hollywood trade papers—but here filmmakers Matthew Pond and Kirk Marcolina get the real Payne to talk about her life and crimes. Awaiting a verdict in a court case involving the theft of a 1.5 carat diamond from a department store jewelry counter, Payne charmingly recalls how she became an expert in her career. If Payne is to be believed, she took up jewelry theft during her childhood as a defense mechanism against her father's violence and the crushing burden of racism in Jim Crow America (although Payne's railing against intolerance isn't exactly helped when she refers to one of her miscreant comrades as “Jew boy”). Since Payne was something of an under-the-radar figure who attracted little media attention throughout her life, the film relies heavily on dramatic re-creations to detail her most outlandish heists (Daniella Flanagan plays the youthful Payne in these stylish flashback scenes). While one can debate the moral dimensions of the documentary's strenuous attempts to turn a lifelong criminal (Payne was nabbed again in October 2015) into an underground hero, the subject's sly personality and intriguing story make for an entertaining watch. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)