Caught Stealing follows former baseball phenom, Hank Thompson, as he gets swallowed up in a deadly situation due to his drug-dealing neighbor. Despite a compelling story, director Darren Aronofsky fills the narrative with extreme violence, torture, profanity and sexual content.
In baseball terms, Hank Thompson is caught in a pickle.
Oh, it started innocently enough for the hardball flameout turned New York City bartender. His neighbor, Russ, asked him to watch his cat while he was away. Hank agreed. But then, Russian gangsters came looking for Russ. They found Hank instead. Next thing Hank knew, he was in a hospital bed and down one kidney.
Hey, at least the Giants are making a push for the postseason.
“Your priorities fascinate me,” says Yvonne, Hank’s girlfriend, from his bedside.
A California native, Hank is a diehard San Francisco Giants fan. He even had dreamed of playing ball for them once, before the car crash that ended his career before it began.
But it’s been hard to enjoy the Giants’ recent run with the mess Russ left behind. Apparently, Russ is a drug dealer who’s gotten mixed up with the wrong kind of people: a cavalcade of killers that include dirty cops, Russian mobsters and Jewish assassins.
In Russ’ absence, they’ve turned their merciless attention toward Hank. They seem to think he knows the whereabouts of a certain $4 million in cash that Russ was brokering between gangs. And they’re more than willing to kill to get it.
As great of a ball player as Hank once was, he’s never seen a curveball like this.
Hank is a decent guy who falls into a very bad situation. Though he’s pursued by thugs and murderers who wouldn’t offer him the same courtesy, he makes a conscious effort not to kill anyone. (There’s one notable exception to this, but even that could be seen as self-defense.) Hank tries to protect those around him from harm on several occasions. He and his mother share a close bond as well.
Yvonne helps Hank when he’s in need. She encourages him to give up drinking and to face the fears he’s running from.
Brothers Lipa and Shmully Drucker, killers looking for that missing $4 million, are Hasidic Jews. They discuss the “suffering of the spirit” and strictly observe Shabbat. Shmully jokes about his brother being a “rabbi” due to his strict religious observance (though adherence to the Sixth Commandment seems to elude them both).
Russ wears a cross earring and refers to himself as a “token Gentile.”
Yvonne suggests, in no uncertain terms, that she and Hank have sex. Caught Stealing lingers on the opening stages of their tryst, which involves kissing, suggestive movements and breast nudity. A woman wears a bra that is practically see-through. Someone references a “booty call.” People remove their clothing until they are only in their underwear.
Hank is seen in his underwear several times. In one scene, he is completely naked after some men search him for a specific item. (While nothing critical is shown, we still see a lot of Hank’s bare body.)
Yvonne asks Hank if she can have a serious relationship with him. Women wear revealing clothing. Scantily clad dancers perform in a club. Someone makes a rude, sexually charged gesture. A couple kisses passionately.
Gritty, gory violence pervades Caught Stealing’s 107-minute runtime. Several characters are shot dead, accompanied by bloody bullet wounds. We see a pair of car crashes and their deadly aftermath. The lone survivor of one of these wrecks badly injures his leg: A broken bone protrudes from his skin.
Hank gets badly beaten by a pair of Russian thugs, rupturing his kidney. (A mix of blood and urine leaks from his body.) Later, he is tortured by having his fresh stitches pulled from his side. Someone considers cutting out Hank’s eyes.
A woman is executed by a point-blank gunshot. Though we don’t see it happen, the film shows the woman lying in a pool of blood; later we see close-up police photos of the fatal wound.
Gunmen blow up a club with grenades. Someone is stabbed through the foot. A man very nearly falls to his death. We hear that someone’s father had a stroke and later died.
A homeless man threatens someone with a knife. A car crashes into an ice cream truck. People trade punches. A television plays a clip from the Jerry Springer Show that shows Ku Klux Klan members brawling with a group of people. People are threatened with violence.
The f-word is used more than 150 times. We hear the s-word more than 25 times and a handful of uses of the c-word. God’s name is abused twice, paired once with “d—.”
Additional profanity includes “h—,” “a–” and “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “p-ss” and the British vulgarity “tw-t.” Crude terms for male and female anatomy are used.
Hank is an alcoholic and works as a bartender. He drinks constantly; his apartment is littered with beer bottles. After losing a kidney, he is told he must give up drinking. He tries to do so (with Yvonne’s encouragement), but his newfound sobriety doesn’t last long: Hank gets completely drunk, which leads to more trouble.
In a flashback, we see Hank drinking beer while driving with a high school buddy. His impairment leads to a crash that has tragic consequences.
A bar owner snorts a line of cocaine. Russ is a drug dealer and mentions ecstasy. When questioned by the police, Hank implies that he has done drugs in the past. People drink and smoke cigarettes.
After a night of heavy drinking, Hank vomits on a window. We see the overflowing mess of a clogged toilet. A tampon is used to stop a nosebleed. Someone jokes about menstrual cycles. One man impersonates another.
Initially, Hank lies to his mother about his worsening situation, so as not to worry her.
For those familiar with the work of director Darren Aronofsky—whose filmography includes such unsettling psychological dramas as Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Noah, Black Swan and Mother!—a darkly comic crime thriller like Caught Stealing might seem out of place. From a Plugged In perspective at least, Aronofsky has simply traded in one mess of content issues for another.
That isn’t to say this film doesn’t have anything good to say. Much like the director’s most recent film, The Whale, there’s a meaningful character arc here. In Caught Stealing, Hank gradually acknowledges that his own destructive decisions led directly to someone’s death. And he ultimately chooses to move forward in a positive direction by rejecting his drug of choice (alcohol). The extreme circumstances in which he finds himself, which are not his fault, bring him to this much-needed conclusion.
That said, there’s a lot of collateral damage along the way. Extreme, bloody violence fills the film. A torrent of harsh profanity flows fast and free. Characters are seen using hard drugs. And one scene lingers on an explicit prelude to sex.
Hank Thompson’s poor decisions led to him missing out on the Big Leagues. Caught Stealing’s myriad content issues will have it striking out with discerning moviegoers.
Bret loves a good story—be it a movie, show, or video game—and enjoys geeking out about things like plot and story structure. He has a blast reading and writing fiction and has penned several short stories and screenplays. He and his wife love to kayak the many beautiful Colorado lakes with their dog.
