Movie Review: Before The Devil Knows You Are Dead
May 9th, 2008 by admin
- Director: Sidney Lumet
- Genre: Drama/Crime/Thriller
- Year: 2007
Jeebus, this movie is messed up in various accounts, but I have to say that as time progresses I am more and more impressed with Phillip Seymour Hoffman (why did I just get the feeling to call him Dustin?) and his choice of films. Here is a guy that is clearly not picking his roles because of the money that comes attached to it but by the solidity of the script. So far he has not disappointed me, even in MI3 he was one hell of a bad guy. In any case, both him and Ethan Hawke do a fantastic job playing Andy and Hank Hanson, two brothers both down on their luck, struggling with life and, sleeping with the same woman. Right off the bat, things are not exactly prime and shiny and they only seem to deteriorate further when Andy suggests the bright idea of getting rid of their economic woes by robbing their parent’s jewelry store. The plan if flawless and perfect, he claims, and of course, that only means that as the movie unfolds, the plan will be anything but that.
As a thriller and drama, this movie shines, with great directing and acting on pretty much everybody in the cast. The story is told alternatively through Andy’s eyes and Hanks eyes and occasionally through Charles Hanson’s eyes (their father). The plot does not unfold linearly either, through a series of flashbacks you are given bits of information that all come together towards the unforgiving end. Not exactly a feel good movie, this is the sort of film with enough grit to make it memorable.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Notes: Language, criminal activity, explicit sexuality and nudity (Marisa Tomei is half naked in half of her scenes) and drug usage.
Quotes: Andy: The thing about real estate accounting is that you can, you can, add down the page or across the page and everything works out. Everyday, everything adds up. The, the total is always the sum of its parts. It’s, uh, clean. It’s clear. Neat, absolute. But my life, it, uh, it doesn’t add up. It, uh… Nothing connects to anything else. It’s, uh… I’m not, I’m not the sum of my parts. All my parts don’t add up to one… to one me, I guess.
Justin: Get a shrink or a wife.
Andy: Uh, I got a wife.
Justin: Get a shrink.