“Before the Devil Knows Your Dead” (2007) – Sidney Lumet orchestrates a jewelry heist gone horribly wrong in his last film. This is a dark and twisted crime movie – told in a non-linear fashion – in which the immoral and desperate aforementioned infraction can only be matched by the flawed human beings – with years of preceding mistakes – who concocted it.
Two brothers, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are at the center of the storm.
Andy is a white-collar executive and suffers from a dysfunctional marriage and huge financial pressures, and the only devices pacifying his anxiety are smoking packs of cigarettes and drinking plenty of 11:30am cocktails. Hank possesses massive problems of his own, and his severe case of arrested development isn’t helping anyone.
Lumet places these two in a colossal pickle and forces us to watch the damning act and its ugly aftermath.
Oh, what a devilish time at the movies. Help!
⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Written by: Kelly Masterson
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan, and Rosemary Harris
Rated: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Image credits: ThinkFilm
