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Before
the Devil Knows You're Dead
(2007)
 
This is a very good film, blessed with a veteran director and a great
cast working from a strong, character driven screenplay. If that's
the recipe for a successful film, then this cinematic meal passes the
taste test.
Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is an executive with a drug problem and
a failing marriage to an unfaithful wife (Marisa Tomei). In need of
money, he convinces his similarly cash desperate younger brother Hank
(Ethan Hawke) to rob a jewelry store belonging to their parents
(Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris). Hank hires a criminal acquaintance
named Bobby (Brķan F. O'Byrne) to do the actual robbery, but things go
awry with tragic consequences for all involved.
Sidney Lumet has been directing television and film since the early
1950s, with credits including 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day
Afternoon, Network, and The Verdict. At the age of 83, he adds
another quality film to his resume, demonstrating an old school
substance-over-style approach that gets to the heart of an almost
operatic tragedy. He tells the story through flashbacks and from
multiple perspectives, carefully weaving the threads until they come
together with a terrible finality.
The original screenplay by playwright Kelly Masterson presents a
compelling and fatalistic profile of human beings whose lives are
spiraling out of control by their own actions and the actions of those
around them. There are some plot twists that require suspension of
disbelief, and a couple of plot threads aren't adequately resolved at
the end, but those are minor quibbles. The focus on the characters is
what makes this story really work.
Lumet recently declared that the future of filmmaking is in digital
video, and this is his first film to be shot in that format. Using
the Panavision Genesis high definition video camera (most notably used
previously on Superman Returns and Zodiac), cinematographer Ron
Fortunato (Basquiat, Catch a Fire) achieves a low-key realism that
captures the tone of the story without getting in the way of the
performances, matched by the production designs of Christopher Nowak
(The X-Files, Find Me Guilty) and the dramatic score by Carter
Burwell (The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men).
Lumet always draws out the best possible performances from his cast,
and here that includes Hoffman and Hawke as the ill-fated siblings,
Finney and Harris as their parents, Tomei as Andy's wife, O'Byrne as
Bobby, Aleksa Palladino as Bobby's wife, Michael Shannon as her
scheming brother, and Leonardo Cimino as a jewelry fence. Hoffman
always seems to quietly deliver great performances, Hawke and Tomei
serve up their best work in years, and Finney is spellbinding. The
acting keeps the film on track even when the script drifts into
occasionally hard to believe areas.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead dives into the darker abysses of
familial relationships and takes the audience along for the ride,
complete with thrilling plot twists and the rush of watching a master
storyteller and skilled actors do what they do best.
-Danielle
Ní Dhighe
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All contents ©
2004-2009 Thoughtsonfilm.com |
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Director:
Sidney
Lumet
Writer: Kelly
Masterson
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Rosemary Harris
Distributor: ThinkFilm
Runtime: 117
min
Rating: R
Release Date: October
26, 2007
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