Caught Stealing movie review: Darren Aronofsky film has more bark than bite

Based on a 2004 novel by Charlie Huston, who has also done the screenplay, Caught Stealing is meant to be the kind of comedic crime thriller where an innocent bystander gets sucked into a vortex of blood and gore, and has the better of them all.

In that, the film holds true to its genre. So what it all boiled down to is how well would Aronofsky craft the world Hank (Butler) crashes into, and how persuasively could he have it undone.

The setting is late 1990s New York, Lower East Side. Rudy Giuliani is the mayor, and his high-decibel campaign to clean up the city, of gangs, graffiti or garbage, is clearly not going great.

We are reminded of this every waking — and often sleeping — moment of Hank’s chaotic life. Aronofksy’s portrayal of New York’s grimy underbelly is Caught Stealing’s strongest suit, apart from Butler’s dewy blond vulnerability.

When it all starts, at 4 am on a normal “night”, Hank is just finishing his shift as a cheery bartender. Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), his paramedic girlfriend, drops in right on time for them to go home together. Waiting for them there is Hank’s frantic neighbour Russ (Matt Smith), who hands Hank his cat to take care of as he rushes to London to be by the side of his ailing father.

Russ, turns out, has left Hank with not just a cat but two separate gangs baying for blood. Since Russ is absent, they go after Hank, and indicate they mean business by beating him enough to leave him without a kidney at their first meeting. If one group comprises generic East Europeans, most likely Russians that is, the other comprises two Orthodox Jew brothers (Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio).

Roman (Regina King) is a police officer who answers Hank’s call for help and knows what is going down with him way too well.

Caught Stealing needed to be much funnier than it is, have much more of the Jew brothers than it does, use Kravitz better than it criminally decides not to, and cut back on lingering shots of the cat and obsessive references to baseball. You kind of sympathise with Russ when, after yet another sample of Hank’s reference to baseball, he says: “Imagine if I kept talking to you about the Premier League. How would you like it?”

We get that baseball is meant to stand in for all that is home and ‘what could have been’ for Hank, but it is clear even the first time that Aronofsky brings it around. And it only gets irritating as he keeps falling back to it. Even the unduly kind Yvonne tells Hank to snap out of it.

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After a middling tour of New York’s grisly neighbourhoods, the film comes to life when Russ re-enters the picture and Smith brings his natural zaniness to the proceedings. However, it doesn’t last too long.

Still, it is not all a waste, given that Butler is such a sight for sore eyes, and you have at least one doubt conclusively cleared: There is still no haircut quite like the mohawk.

Caught Stealing movie director: Darren Aronofsky
Caught Stealing movie cast: Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Regina King, Griffin Dunne, Matt Smith, Liev Schreiber, Vincent D’Onofrio
Caught Stealing movie rating: 3 stars

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