Attempting to strike a balance between a character-driven narrative and an action-based odyssey, Darren Aronofsky’s gritty thriller “Caught Stealing” mostly succeeds.
Set in the 1990s, the film follows Hank (Austin Butler), a former baseball prodigy and alcoholic, as his quiet life in a derelict Manhattan apartment is turned upside down. At the start of the film, he is haunted by a tragic incident that ended his professional aspirations. Before his bartending job, he spends his days pining after love interest Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz) and calling his mother (Laura Dern) daily, with whom he shares an obsession with the San Francisco Giants. This routine is disrupted when his punk-rock neighbor (Matt Smith) asks Hank to take care of his cat.
Soon embroiled in a convoluted world of high-octane crime, the first half of the movie sees Hank beaten up by multiple gangsters until he teams up with a hardened detective played by a compelling Regina King. In a deft moment of exposition, King explains that Hank has found himself in the possession of an object for which three different mobster groups — Hasidic, Puerto Rican and Ukrainian — are willing to kill.
As an odyssey chock-full of plot twists and gripping scenes, extremely gory or funny at different moments, the movie is a wild ride. Throughout his journey, Hank is an arresting hero with a cat and a chip on his shoulder. While the plot twists are well-executed, they are perhaps gratuitous — there are so many that audiences cannot help but anticipate the next betrayal. Moreover, attempts at showing character emotions are limited. Aronofsky’s reputation for character-driven stories gives the expectation of more character development.
The movie’s style brings it to life. Revered cinematographer Matthew Libatique adds his Academy Award winning touch to make the film visually compelling with many extreme close-up shots. There are a few truly stunning shots — particularly in one-on-one scenes with Butler and Kravitz. The movie is essentially an homage to the 1985 neo-noir film “After Hours,” which similarly follows a New Yorker civilian entangled in crime.
If “Caught Stealing” had a bad cast without original style, it would be a bad movie. Though propulsive, moving breathlessly between scenes, the plot is not particularly remarkable on its own. Yet luckily, the combination of Aronofsky’s directing, Libatique’s cinematography, Butler’s acting skills and a great supporting cast make the film worth watching. Not to mention the film’s other main star: New York City.
