#darren-aronofsky

#darren-aronofsky

At first blush, Darren Aronofsky seems like the least-likely candidate for something like Caught Stealing. Sony's new crime caper, adapted from Charlie Huston's 2004 novel of the same name, was positioned as a spicy- if razor-edged - late-summer romp, leaning heavier on the central romance between its red-hot stars than on the dark action that threatens to tear them apart. It felt like the latest offering from Edgar Wright or Guy Ritchie, not the guy who gave us Black Swanand Requiem for a Dream.

Butler plays Hank Thompson: a former baseball player who can't play anymore; a bartender who, after some of the early events of the movie, can't drink anymore; and a devoted San Francisco Giants fan surrounded by Mets fans. As his not-quite girlfriend Yvonne ( Zoë Kravitz) says, he's "a good country boy" who calls his mom in California every day. They end every call with "Go Giants!"

Director Darren Aronofsky opens Caught Stealing by grounding it immediately in a time and place: 1998, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, closing time at the bar where Hank ( Austin Butler) works. Hank once had a chance at playing professional baseball, but a car accident stripped that dream away from him years ago; now, he's on the verge of a full-tilt drinking problem, but keeping his head above water with more than a little support from his girlfriend Yvonne ( Zoë Kravitz).

Aronofsky tried to do some enforced method acting by starting a feud between Portman and Kunis, but both actresses figured out the ruse quickly.