The past 12 months have been so very good for movies that Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead managed to snag not a single major nomination at the Oscars. But in any other year, the film might have gotten a raft of nods for its tense performances and complex direction and screenwriting.
The film is by Sidney Lumet, the veteran who’s been directing classics like 12 Angry Men, Fail Safe, Dog Day Afternoon and Network for over 50 years.
Showing no signs of slowing down at 83, Lumet is on familiar, tense territory with this story of two brothers blinded by their weaknesses and their greed.
Andy, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, is a seemingly successful real estate executive, who has a nice apartment and a beautiful and adoring wife. At first glance it’s his brother Henry, played by Ethan Hawke, who’s the loser of the family. But that perception quickly changes as the two plot to rob the jewellery store owned by their elderly parents.
Both of them need money fast and they rationalise that what they’re committing is a victimless crime. It’s not giving anything away to say it all goes horribly, horribly wrong.
Lumet, working from a script by newcomer Kelly Masterson, fractures this thriller so that we get varying perspective and time shifts. Such chronological reordering is now familiar, but it works very well here, gradually revealing traitorous characters as it complicates the plot and ratchets up the tension. We’re always guessing, which makes for powerful viewing.
The performances from Hoffman, Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney are top-notch. The film’s effect is like a nightmare that unfolds in slow motion – the more these characters struggle, the more trapped they become.
As a grimly fascinating crime thriller and character study, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead rates four stars.
Watch 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead'
Saturday 4 June, 8:30pm on SBS World Movies / NOTE: No catch-up at SBS On Demand
MA15+, AD
USA, 2007
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Language: English
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Michael Shannon
