1 Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman discuss their pithy familial agony in a scene from "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead"
Photo courtesy of THINKFilm
The devil knows what Sidney Lumet’s been up to
Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke star in postmodern update on the family crime drama in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
By Beth Capper
Published: November 8th, 2006 | 3:37pm
If I had to cite an American director I love more than Altman, Scorcese, and Cassavetes combined, it would be Sidney Lumet. Not only did Lumet write one of the best books about filmmaking (Making Movies), but he also directed at least three of the best films I've ever seen — Network, Dog Day Afternoon, and 12 Angry Men. Three films so startlingly brilliant and original that they make up for every cinematic blunder in Lumet's extensive 50-year film career.
And Lumet's latest, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead – a high-tension family drama revolving around a jewelry store heist – more than adequately ranks among those three. Taking a totally different angle to Lumet's most notable heist thriller, Dog Day Afternoon, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead uses this robbery as the pivot for a series of tragic and unbelievable (yet conversely totally believable) events.
Here's the premise: Hank (Ethan Hawke) and Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are two brothers in a fair amount of financial woe. Andy has been embezzling money from his firm in order to please his flighty young wife (Marisa Tomei) and support his considerable smack habit. Hank is just kind of a loser, under pressure from his hateful ex-wife (Amy Ryan) for being behind on his child support payments. Andy has the bright idea to rob a mom and pop jewelry store — and not just any one, but his actual mom and pops. Needless to say it goes wrong, Greek tragedy style.
Lumet's narrative is edited like Reservoir Dogs, revisiting the event itself, its buildup, and subsequent aftermath from the perspective of each character, creating a tension that will leave you gasping at every vicious twist. If you feel like a fuck up, this film might make you seem truly well adjusted.
None of Lumet's characters are much above repellent — Hoffman's is a dull, lifeless drug addict who looks on the verge of an aneurism at all times, Tomei’s is a vapid housewife two timing her husband (Hoffman) with his brother (Hawke) and seemingly showing zero remorse about it. Even Hawke’s character, with his puppydog-ish bewilderment (circa Reality Bites), doesn't really tug at your heartstrings. The only character that deserves any sympathy at all is the immense Albert Finney, excellently cast as Hank and Andy's dad, a man crippled by despair and rage. These hateful characterizations are precisely what make Before the Devil Knows You're Dead so excellent. In these vile specimens, we see ourselves — the things we could do but don't do, or at least, haven't done yet. We see how easy it is to fuck your life up in one fell swoop.
Before the Devil Knows You're Deaddoesn't just explore remorse and guilt, but what people are actually capable of in spite of passed down morality. The question on Hank and Andy's lips most of the time isn't so much "should I do it?" as "will I get away with it?"
The answer is most firmly: no.
Issue #36
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