Turturro at his best in ‘Pickpocket’

Melancholic and keenly attuned to the world of low-level New York City crime, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York provides an old-school helping of urban life that revolves around John Turturro’s performance as Harry, a pickpocket nearing the end of his hustle. Times have changed. Credit cards have put a crimp on light-fingered activities. The bricks that held up the old street order are crumbling. The movie can be taken as an ode to New York City as a haven for layers of hidden subcultures and the characters who occupy them. Steve Buscemi — a master of making big impressions in small roles — plays Ben, a pawnshop owner who has known Harry for years. The two men understand each other, although both recognize the transactional imperatives of their relationship. Harry's a seller, Ben, a buyer. Turturro’s performance has a sad-sack quality that’s enhanced by the roomy gray overcoat he wears, a necessity of his trade as well as a cloak of anonymity, something to disappear inside. The…