If there is one profession that I think everyone can agree is better off dying out, it is pickpocketing. Between the decline in cash usage, the rise of counterfeit luxury goods, and the widespread use of trackers for credit cards and phones, pickpocketing has become an increasingly unprofitable line of work outside of major tourist destinations. Simply put, the criminal profession isn’t making money like it used to. Noah Segan’s The Only Living Pickpocket in New York follows an aging pickpocket whose livelihood has been steadily dwindling in an increasingly technology-driven world. So, what happens when a pickpocket who refuses to adapt to modern technology steals from the wrong person, someone who is far more technologically savvy than he could ever imagine? What you get is a surprisingly rich character study about a man coming to terms with his age, his place in a rapidly changing world, and the inevitable reality that the life he has known for decades may no longer have a place in it.
On one hand, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is a crime drama. After Harry (John Turturro, The Batman) unknowingly steals and sells a highly valuable USB drive, his life is thrown into disarray as he desperately attempts to retrieve it before the crime family retaliates against his own family by the end of the day. Harry is forced onto the streets of New York City, retracing his steps in an increasingly desperate race against the clock, all without a phone, GPS, or even a simple credit card. He visits his fence, only to discover that the drive is already gone. He then makes his way through Chinatown in search of the missing device, only to learn that it has been sent outside the city. Following that lead takes him down yet another dead end. As the clock continues to tick and the jazz score grows increasingly intense, Harry begins to realize that his time may be running out. What initially begins as a desperate search for a stolen USB drive slowly transforms into something far more existential, forcing Harry to confront his own mortality and the life choices that have brought him to this point.
The other side of The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is that it also serves as a character study of a man confronting his life as a criminal and the ways in which his choices have affected both himself and those closest to him. John Turturro delivers a brilliant, understated performance, perfectly capturing a man forced to reckon with his mortality, his past, and the consequences of his decisions. As he wanders around New York, desperately searching for that USB drive, the weight of his past slowly begins to catch up with him, and what initially seems like a simple search gradually becomes something far more personal and emotionally burdensome.
Ultimately, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is a surprisingly poignant little crime drama that uses the familiar conventions of a race-against-the-clock crime thriller to tell a much more personal story about aging, regret, and the inability to adapt to a changing world. Noah Segan understands that there is more to Harry’s predicament than simply retrieving a stole USB drive, and John Tururro carries the entire film with a beautifully understated performance that gives the character an extraordinary amount of depth and humanity. Watching an aging man slowly realize that the world has moved on without him and that he has spent his life building a home that no one wants to visit is surprisingly heartbreaking to watch. The story may not reinvent the crime drama, but give that drama a good character study with it, you have another classic story of New York City.
My Rating: B
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York is now playing in theatres nationwide.
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