Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Film Review (2007)

photo courtesy of joey's film blog

I’m gonna cut right to the chase, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” was a terrific film in its own right. In comparison to my comments and critique of Imaginary Heroes, this film was just the opposite. Director Sidney Lumet (“Dog Day Afternoon” and “Serpico”) and scriptwriter Kelly Masterson teamed up to put an interesting twist to the typical “dysfunctional family” film.

“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is an account of moral destruction, as well as spiritual and physical. It is a tale of ordinary people with familiar desires such as money, respect, sex, and status. The downfalls of these ordinary people are features of the human character, greed, envy, vanity and stupidity. Murder is the end result.

A real estate accountant, Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is desperate for cash; he is deep in debt, has a broken sense of manhood, his marriage to Gina (Marisa Tomei), his trophy wife, is on the rocks, and he has a wicked drug habit. His brother, Hank Hanson (Ethan Hawke) has a dire situation of his own. The majority of his money goes to his ex-wife (Amy Ryan) and daughter; he has an uninspiring job, that barely pays the bills, and he sleeps with Gina every chance he gets. Desperation leads many down the wrong path, as you soon will see.

Andy, the mastermind, conjures up a “get rich quick, nobody gets hurt” jewelry store heist that will net them an easy $600k. Every mastermind has an accomplice that does the dirty work, here’s where his brother Hank comes in. Andy handsomely twists the arm of Hank and talks him into going along with the plan. The story begins here, Saturday, the day of the robbery, when the easy money scheme goes deadly wrong and involves their parents; the sound of gunfire, broken glass, and squealing wheels disturbed the nearby strip mall, where the jewelry store was located.

What went wrong? Will they ever find out what happened and who did it? What did the parents have to do with it?

I assure you pleased after watching this film. Everything from the impressive debut script of Kelly Masterson to the enveloping performances of the film cast made this a winner. Aside from the aforementioned, Lumet’s direction is full of zig-zags, ups and downs as you’re shown one day, then shown the day before, then back to present day, which adds a little spice to the usual flashback film. He knows how to utilize a cutback and knows when to dispose of it when its use becomes useless. What’s so interesting to me is that you never look at the Hanson’s as criminals, somehow the script and the direction allows for that “ordinary people” appeal to stick. This film is 100% exhilarating to watch, that’s the least that I can say, as I don’t want to give away anything else. You’ll want to savor in the discoveries of this film and allow yourself to enjoy the destinies of the characters.

GRADE: A

Check out the trailer (IE users click here)