Based on the 1973 novel by Southern writer Harry Crews. Giamatti plays a dirt-poor auto upholsterer, who lives in Florida with his sister and her mentally challenged son. He has occasional sex with a 20-something stoner and is on a one-way road to misanthropy. The only passion in his life comes from training hawks, although even his falconry skills are dubious. This passion becomes pronounced when he catches a magnificent red-tail hawk, a bird he's single-mindedly determined to tame.