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Starring: Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writer(s): Kelly Masterson

Studio: THINKFilm, Image

Rating: R

Official Bar Score: 

Sidney Lumet’s latest opus “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is the bleak and depressing story of two brothers (Hawke and Hoffman) who both are in desperate need of money and hatch a plan to rob their parent’s jewelery store. When things go terribly wrong, their lives go into a tail spin, endangering their very survival and affecting everyone even remotely attached to them. Their misguided attempt at trying to get their lives together ends up destroying what little they have, revealing what happens when you lose sight of what’s really important.

There are a lot of things to love about this movie, despite the fact that it’s the single most depressing thing you likely will have seen in a very long time. For one, there are two interesting stories going on that depend on each other but could conceivably be enjoyed seperately. One is of the utter dysfunction of the family in question. I have always been a fan of the “dysfunctional family” theme, and this one is up there with the best of them. The only member that seems to have anything endearing about them gets shot and put into a coma, leaving you watching one of the most vile and fucked up group of people you have ever seen. One brother is a dead beat dad (Hawke) who has no qualms sleeping with the emotionally unstable wife (Tomei) of his drug addicted brother (Hoffman) who is stealing money from any place he has access. The patriarch of the family (Finney) never has anything but disdain for his offspring, and only really shows emotion when he is enraged… you get the point. This is the family you either disavow or thank god you aren’t a part of. It makes for good drama.

The other story is of the heist itself, which really hammers home the point that there is no such thing as the perfect crime. It also reveals a lot about the courage (or lack thereof) of most of the characters, the dangers of getting involved with people who do not fear engaging in a criminal conspiracy, and how quickly life can unravel when you hang your life on something as dangerous as an armed robbery. Lumet did a good job of making what takes up little more than five minutes of screen time the most intense moment of the film, and using it as a catalyst for the actions of everybody throughout the film. I was impressed. It’s not “Heat”, but for something on a smaller scale it works very well.

Lumet did an excellent job as per usual with all aspects of the film, as I was left with a lot of impressions and most of them were positive. The split time line shown from different perspectives was pulled off flawlessly. Writer Kelly Masterson crafted a wonderful script that for the most part never really drags. I was particulary impressed by the cast. I am a big fan of Tomei and Hoffman, ambivalent about Finney, and really don’t like Ethan Hawke all that much. That being said, Hawke outshines everybody except Tomei, who he would have had she not been naked 90 percent of the time. But, you know, Marisa Tomei is hot…

I really liked this and I have feeling multiple viewings will verify that it will become a staple of my collection. The only negatives I can say about it are that it’s mildly slow, and is absolutely one of the most dreary stories I have had the opportunity to take in. Tightening up of the pace and at least attempting to inject some slight comic relief probably would have garnered this one a 5 beer score. That being said, I still highly recommend it, especially to fans of crime dramas.

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