Sidney Lumet has directed some of the finest films of all time, among them 12 Angry Men, Network, and Dog Day Afternoon. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead may not be of the same caliber as these other movies, but it is still a damn fine film. Tense and claustrophobic in all the right ways, Lumet's crime thriller hearkens back to the kind of non-linear heist movie that Tarantino popularized with Reservoir Dogs.
Kelly Masterson's script, her first, is a masterclass, intricately weaving the details of a heist, an affair, and a dysfunctional family all into one seamless plot that never seems to wander despite taking many detours. Beginning with the ending, Masterson gives us the story of two brothers, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, who plan to rob their parent's jewelery store, but things go terribly wrong when they discover their mother working there. Marissa Tomei plays Hoffman's wife and Hawke's girlfriend. As the film builds to its bloody climax, hidden motives are unearthed and old wounds are reopened.
Hoffman is as brilliant as ever playing the smarter, more successful, more confident of the brothers. Hawke is, at times, overmatched, but there are glimpses of the potential we've known about since Training Day. However, most impressive here is Albert Finney as the boys' father and the owner of the jewelery store in question. His relentless pursuit of the robbers is heartbreaking, made all the more sad because we know how it must end.
The plot moves back and forth with details of the robbery and its aftermath shown from every possible point of view. The lightning fast edits contrast nicely with the calm steady camerawork, both of which give the film an authentic documentary style feel. The devestation we experience as an audience is enhanced by this realism and by the fact that, perhaps save for all the blood, the story could be the story of any family, even our own, that must struggle with lost hopes and shattered dreams.
See it.
Yes.
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