Caught Stealing (8/10)

by Tony Medley

107 minutes.

R.

Hank (Austin Butler) is a bartender. He’s a big San Francisco Giants fan and ex-baseball player whose bright future was terminated after an auto accident (that is played and replayed throughout the film). He’s got a loving girlfriend, Yvonne (Zoë Kravitz), who really cares about him, more, really, than he cares about himself.

Alas, after sex with Yvonne he goes back to his apartment and his punk neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith) entices him to care for his cat while he goes to visit his dying father. Hank doesn’t like cats, but he’s got a good heart and agrees.

Later he enters his apartment building and comes upon two bad guys trying to get in touch with Russ. In the process they beat the bejesus out of Hank, costing him a kidney. But it keeps getting worse and he also gets involved with two murderous Orthodox Jewish mobsters (Vincent D’Onofrio and Liev Schreiber, both unrecognizable) and a detective, Roman (Regina King), all of whom are after poor Hank.

They all want something from Russ and think that Hank can get it for them. The result is a lot of running and hiding and graphic violence as Hank tries to fend them off, even though he has no idea what they are after.

This is an action-packed film directed by Darren Aronofsky from a script by Charlie Huston with fine performances that keeps the tension going through to the end.