Before The Devil Knows You're Dead on DVD (2007)

A customer from London , 01/04/2008

This is bad bad bad. Everyone in it is an idiot and you don't care one bit about a single person in the film. Look for something else, I think you will be glad.

  62 out of 65 people found this review helpful

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SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 04/05/2008

Andy (Hoffman) has serious money troubles, as does his brother Hank (Hawke). To solve their woes Andy proposes that they rob a jewellery store owned by their father (Finney) and mother, reasoning that their parents will be taken care of by the insurance and that nobody will be hurt. The heist goes badly wrong and the whole family’s lives begin to unravel as a result.

Everyone thought that Sidney Lumet’s career was pretty much done and dusted, that’s when you win an honorary Oscar. However the director of, among others, 12 Angry Men, Serpico and Network has, at 83, made his most vital and engaging film in years.

With it’s whipcracking pace, it’s non-linear narrative and it’s crisp dialogue Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead feels like the work of a young, hungry filmmaker, somebody setting out his stall rather than winding down a legendary career.

Lumet draws excellent work from his entire cast. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a flat out brilliant actor, with every role he transforms, he’s as close to a peak form DeNiro as anyone working right now. Here he’s excellent, unafraid to be completely loathsome as a man whose moral high point as a character is when he suggests stealing from his own parents. Hoffman is never overblown; instead his best work lies in detail, in quiet conviction, by which he vanishes into his character. There’s also a real originality to his choices. How many times have you seen that scene where a man smashes up his home after his wife leaves him? Here Hoffman makes that chestnut feel new by doing it with such methodical, almost clinical, slowness that rather than a cliché it becomes one of the key character scenes.

Good as he is Hoffman doesn’t overshadow the rest of the cast. Especially good is the underrated Ethan Hawke, whose performance as Hank shows, just as much as his work in Before Sunset or Training Day, that he’s got a real talent for building people who feel real. Marisa Tomei has little to do for the first half of the film other than show of her (admittedly magnificent) breasts, but during the second half of the film she offers strong support, particularly in the scene where she tells Hoffman she’s leaving him. Finally there’s Albert Finney, he’s got the most extreme character arc, and he plays it brilliantly, taking you along as Charles descends into hell, each step absolutely credible as the film inches towards its shocking ending.

It’s amazing to think that this is screenwriter Kelly Masterson’s first produced work, it crackles with great dialogue (particularly in a backyard conversation between Hoffman and Finney) and the plot constantly turns in ways you don’t quite expect. Here’s hoping that Masterson has more screenplays of this sort of quality in him.

But kudos must really go to Lumet, he marshals all the elements brilliantly, never letting the interest flag and always making the film look fantastic. This is vivid, punchy, and high quality cinema, a great late entry in a great filmography.

  49 out of 49 people found this review helpful

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JamesH from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 16/02/2008

Don't be duped by the excellent reviews. This film is a bit of a stinker. If you like classy thrillers like Out of Sight or Seven then avoid this - you will be disappointed.

  38 out of 41 people found this review helpful

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crockery from Belfast [Highly rated reviewer] , 06/04/2008

This film is about two brothers robbing a jewellery store. However, their plan goes desperately wrong, leaving them with unimaginably horrifying consequences.

Initially I found 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead' slow and difficult to understand due to the non linear plot. Things quickly picked up, and I was captivated by the film.

Ethan Hawke delivers a strong and convincing performance, especially his paranoia, guilt and anxiety while being on the run. Philip Seymour Hoffman on the other hand, is chilling as his morals cascade to new lows with every segment of the film.

The characters are very well portrayed and developed. I felt connected to the characters and cared for them. As the story progressed, I felt very sorry for the two brothers as their lives spiral out of control. The ending is very disturbing and sad. It makes me wonder what price people are willing to pay to get the justice they want.

'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead' is a powerful and yet disturbing film. It is well executed, told and acted. In fact I like it better than a few of this year's Oscar nominated films I saw.

  32 out of 32 people found this review helpful

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VLP from London, England , 03/07/2008

There are plenty of good actors in this, but throughout I had no belief in them, and couldn't feel any empathy towards the excess of emotion on show. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays his usual emotionally stunted manipulative character that we have seen in umpteen other films by now, while Ethan Hawke is either being directed terribly, or is having a very off day. Lots of angst, lots of flashbacks, not in fact a bad idea for a plot, but I couldn't wait for them to get on and end things. Ultimately this wants to be a really intelligent film, but ends up just being rather irritating and dull.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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timbailey60 from Bristol [Highly rated reviewer] , 23/07/2008

An odd film; not good, not bad, just....... odd.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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