Sidney Lumet is 83 years old and not only still proving himself a masterful director but also proving himself as someone willing and able to work on the edge technologically, shooting the film digital instead of film. I only mention that detail because you probably won't notice, which says an awful lot.
 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is a dark film. Lumet has no time for cheap sentiment and wastes none on this movie. A lesser director would have tried to soften the tone and make the characters more sympathetic, give them some hope. Lumet has ice water running through his veins, showing the cold-blooded ruthlessness needed to make this material work.
Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are brothers. Andy is a corporate accountant fleecing his company and blowing it all on an expensive drug habit. His marriage to Gina (Marisa Tomei) is falling apart and they don't seem to know why. Hank is part of the problem, as he is sleeping with Gina every Thursday. Hank is a complete mess. He wants to live a straight life for the sake of his daughter but can't make enough money to cover his child support, giving his ex-wife endless opportunities to emasculate him. He just can't do anything right. Which is why it's more than a little surprising when Andy comes to him with a plan to rob their parents' jewelry store. Trusting this walking nervous twitch of a man to manage something as dangerous as an armed robbery doesn't seem all too bright. Perhaps Andy isn't half as cunning as he thinks he is.
The plan is to have Andy rob the place Saturday morning when their parents aren't working, using his knowledge of the store to make things go smoothly. But Andy doesn't even have that much nerve and so he hires a thug to do the robbery car while he drives the getaway car. It all goes horribly wrong and both the thug and their mother end up dead, plus no stolen goods to fence.
Lumet and his editor Tom Swartwout fracture the timeline, going back and forth over these events, giving us new angles and information with each swing back through. In the process, they let us understand this family in disturbing detail. No dull expositions scenes are necessary with this approach. Lumet simply layers information in, causing a detailed image to appear over time. What starts as a seemingly simple concept grows steadily more messy and convoluted, resolving as the image of a badly scarred family full of resentment and carefully nursed rancor.
Hoffman and Hawke are just about perfect in their performances, which are about as different from one another as possible. And they exist in fine contrast to Albert Finney's performance as their father Charles. You won't know it until deep into the film but each of the brothers make perfect sense when seen through the filter of Charles' personality. In fact, the movie's biggest flaw is that Finney doesn't come into the story until late, giving him less to work with but just as important a role. Hoffman's Andy is ferociously driven, a fact that becomes steadily more apparent as it tilts a bad situation into a full blown disaster. On the flip side is Hawke's Hank, an extraordinarily weak willed man who seems afraid of his own shadow. And playing quietly against all of them is Marisa Tomei, who seems like she doesn't have a lot to do at first glance but is probably doing a lot to hold all these characters together on screen.
You have to wonder about this family. What kind of a life did they have together growing up that created such damage? This isn't the sort of movie that will provide an ending that resolves everything neatly and uplifts us. It's more the sort of movie that leaves things a mess, questions unanswered, and takes a moment to punch you in the gut before leaving. I can understand that comment giving a lot of people pause about seeing it but that's just being honest. There is a wonderful study of the darker side of human nature at work here but you have to be willing to accept a lot of unpleasant behavior to get it. It's a movie about weakness. Andy has a high opinion of himself but he's a slave to his weakness for drugs and high-end living. Hank wants to be a good dad but he's too weak to walk a straight path without jumping at the easy money offered by crime. Those weaknesses push them into a criminal act that results in the death of their mother. The guilt and pain of that just reinforces their weaknesses, driving them toward the brink of disaster.
This is not a movie for everyone, but it is a highly rewarding film. Lumet shows that he hasn't lost a step. Actually, he probably has more than a few tricks up his sleeve to show those youngsters following in his footsteps.
- John Shea
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Great movie
By: Randal () on 13-11-2007 13:16