Ross Vassilev Sydney Lumet was one of those directors whose films are all total crap. This is one of them.It starts off with a sex scene featuring a good, long look at Philip Seymour Hoffman's naked big, fat ass. And it only gets worse....Younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) was supposed to rob his own parents' jewelry store-at the urging of older brother Andy (Hoffman)-but hires a friend to do it instead, so the brothers' mom gets killed. As the English say, not bloody likely!The second half of the film turns into a family melodrama with a lot recriminations and crying, mostly from older brother Andy.The film ends with a Quentin Tarantino-style bloody shootout in which about a dozen people get killed. Then the father/widower (Albert Finney) suffocates son Andy with a pillow.The film tries to compare/contrast the world of the working class v. the world of the upper middle class, but the whole storyline comes off as labored, contrived and convoluted. The film's only redeeming quality is that we get a good, long look at Marisa Tomei's T&A (she plays Andy's wife). Fortunately, THAT scene occurs in the first one-third of the film. So if you want, you can fast forward to that part, watch it, and then pop the DVD out. I wish I had.

Ricardo Barros What starts out as just another movie about "heist-gone-wrong" develops into an intricate plot about familial dysfunction and everyday people trying to make ends meet (although some ends are bigger than others).Only Lumet could've directed this: you can see his extremely confident camera style (albeit in the hands of expert- cinematographer Ron Fortunato) throughout the entire film. The movie constantly toys with oversaturated and overexposed shots, while filling the canvas with a pale, but distinct, blue tone.Everyone matters in this film. You never quite get the sensation that you're watching subplots or secondary characters. Every actor, and hence every character, plays a very singular role that uniquely determines the actions of the others. This is wonderfully achieved as the actors are very often placed "on-the-spot" with the camera firmly glued to them until they deliver whatever emotion is needed at that particular time. No example is more notorious of this than Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance: the intensity of the actor is paired perfectly with the acuteness of Fortunato's camera work.Each shot is carefully blocked and assembled, never allowing the actors to "take a breather", ramping up the intensity or slowly building it up at the director's whim.The movie hops back and forth between the characters timelines to further convey and deepen their connection both to the main story and to each other.Despite this non-linear structure, the subtle allusion to certain objects or events always lets the viewer know when in time the action is taking place, which could only be achieved through solid and well-thought-out editing.Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is a gem and definitely worth the time. It is a criminally underrated and underwatched film that should be seen as soon as possible.

Mace As a last film for a truly legendary director, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead can only be described as a haunting, underrated masterpiece that any viewer will not soon forget. The film consists of an all-star cast, including the likes of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei and Albert Finney. Even Michael Shannon shares a brief, but memorable, bit of run time. The casting was excellent all around and there were no characters that felt out of place or unnecessary to the story. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke specifically were the best either of them have ever been. The solid script and carefully written dialogue shared between the two main characters delivers some of the film's most riveting moments. And the "car scene" is one of Hoffman's most memorable on-screen moments. Those of you who have seen the film will know what I am referring to and those unaware are in for a treat.The story, while simple and admittedly not too original, manages to effectively show the characters' descent into violence and madness while jumping to before and after the event in which the movie revolves around. While sometimes the movie holds our hand a little too much with the story telling, I appreciated the fact that this movie wanted us to never be confused or lost within the time-jumping narrative. I was always aware of where our characters were and what point of the story I was witnessing.Now I have seen many comparisons between this film and the masterpiece known as Fargo, and while it shares the same theme of "simple crime gone horribly wrong" Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is not a darkly comedic venture. In fact, this movie is rarely anything but somber and hopeless. This is not a bad thing though as it seems that this was the director's intent. Delivering a powerful message through spurts of violence and intensity while never straying from the realm of reality within the movie. The violence and thrills are handled very well and are, at times, extremely intense.Now with all that said, there is only one thing that stopped the movie from being perfect and that is the ending. Normally when following characters throughout a movie we like to see how their story ends. It is common in all basic story telling. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough, especially if we are following a certain character throughout the entire film. Viewers want to know what happened to the character they have been following for the past two hours, but this movie denies you of that. It leaves the fate of the character out of view, and while that works for some movies, I sadly don't think it was the right choice here. Seeing all the things that this character has gone through and leaving it unfinished before the movie is over feels incredibly abrupt and doesn't fit with the rest of the movie. Despite this issue, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is a masterpiece from a truly talented director. A tight written script brought together by superb acting and thrills, this is definitely a movie you should make time for.

luke-a-mcgowan No movie title has created more tension and anticipation in me more than Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. What a colossal disappointment then that Sidney Lumet's film ended up being a muddled, needlessly convoluted mess that dawdles towards an inevitable conclusion. Too often a film director decides that lurching around a timeline makes for a more compelling story, but this is not such a film that benefits from the structure. Flashbacks rarely act with the game-changing feel that Predestination or the TV show Lost did. During one flashback, all that is revealed is that Albert Finney's character had a driving test and his wife opened a shop (both of which were revealed through exposition before and after the flashback anyway). Rather than creating mystery, it simply creates frustration and confusion. The conclusion leaves a number of plot points unresolved - namely, Ethan Hawke's Hank - which is inconceivable considering the film's length vis a vis simple plot.The acting here is pretty terrific - Hoffman is at his dramatic high, Hawke turns out one of his best, and Finney does wonders with a character whose development beings and ends with "mad, sad, bad dad". Sadly, Marisa Tomei stares blearily into the camera during her entire nothing role. It is surprising that in a film containing three of my favourite actors, the film's highlight is a scene stealing Michael Shannon, who commanded my attention with supreme skill. The film's screenplay is cluttered, self-indulgent and largely boring. Plot points weave in and out of relevance, such as the IRS audit and Tomei's entire plot. Many characters, Hoffman especially, indulge in self-important monologues. It then glosses over important deductions, by having characters make wild assumptions that are conveniently correct. Real people don't talk or act like many of the characters in this film.Sidney Lumet's film didn't deliver on its star cast or eye-catching title, and ends up being a clotted mess around the bottom of the filmographies of those involved.