Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet (The Verdict Dog Day Afternoon Serpico) scores big with this absorbing suspense thriller. Oscar®-winner* Philip Seymour Hoffman is Andy an overextended payroll executive who lures his younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) into a larcenous scheme: the pair will rob a suburban mom-and-pop jewelry store that appears to be the quintessential easy target. The problem is the store owners are Andy and Hank's real mom and pop and when the seemingly perfect crime goes awry the damage sends them hurtling toward a shattering climax. System Requirements:LENGTH: 117 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 014381487527 Manufacturer No: CAP4875DVD
Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is an exceptionally dark story about a crime gone wrong and the complicated reasons behind it. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are outstanding as brothers whose mutual love-hate relationship subtly colors their agreement to rob their own parents' jewelry store, and more explicitly affects the anxious aftermath of their villainy when their mother (Rosemary Harris) ends up shot. Hoffman's steely, emotionally locked-up Andy, despite pulling down six figures as a corporate executive, is supporting an expensive drug habit while trying to leave the country with his depressed wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Hank (Hawke), a whipped dog of low intelligence, owes back alimony and child support to his ex-spouse. Both men need money and agree to rip off their parents' business, a decision that goes awry and puts both men in various kinds of jeopardy while their mother remains comatose and their father (Albert Finney) lurches along trying to make sense of anything. Writer Kelly Masterson's screenplay employs a perhaps now-overly-familiar time-shifting tactic, jumping around the chronology of the story's events and replaying scenes from different vantage points. The effect is a little tedious but successfully deconstructs the film's drama in a way that shows how such terrible events are directly linked to family dysfunction, old wounds between parent and child, between siblings, that fester into full-blown tragedy. Eighty-three-year-old director Lumet (Serpico) employs bleached colors and scenes of blunt sexuality and violence, adding to the moral rudderlessness and banality of this airless world. If Devil feels a little reductive and insistently grim, it is also a generally persuasive work by an old master. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Mining The Depths Of Stupidity:
Listen, Man. This sure had all the indicators of a promising few hours, with the cast and director having proved themselves through the years. It's impossible to feel any sympathy for any of the characters in this film, 'cuz they're all either too selfish or stupid to exist. Good acting? Sure, but to what end? The movie jumps back & forth in a very distracting manner, and Hawke's character is darn dumb I wanted to rip him outta the TV and strangle him. Believability is shot early on in this lame attempt... more info
Depressing, but Strangely Beautiful:
I won't go into too much detail, because some better reviewers than myself have already summed up this great movie perfectly. Superb acting all-around makes this movie great. Albert Finney is one of the greatest actors of all-time, and Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant as always. Ethan Hawke is at his all-time best, with a wonderfully understated performance. He plays the ultimate loser, and his performance is very realistic. Marisa Tomei is naked for half the movie, so she'll get no complaints in my... more info
Before the Devil Knows Your're Dead:
The work of Sidney Lumet is just fantastic. His direction is so insightful. The cast was wonderful too especially Philip Seymour Hoffman. Is there any part he can't breathe life into. It is a great film.
You have about 30 Minutes in Heaven Before the Devil knows you're Dead!:
Sidney Lumet, the acclaimed director responsible for "Serpico" and "12 Angry Men" returns with another thrilling slice of human drama in "BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD". The man definitely knows how to make a melodrama seem thrilling and immersive. I'm not going to argue with him, Lumet insists that this film is a melodrama rather than a crime thriller. Melodramas is one of the most underestimated genres in film. Whatever genre it may be under, the script by Kelly Masterson comes to life with Lumet's... more info
