If Sidney LumetThe career of could be defined by a single concept: it is about how social structures incite and anger people to sacrifice their souls for success. Some of his most famous films, such as network And Dog daysare particularly praised for the way he uses narrative and his technical know-how to illustrate and analyze how people build the systems they are forced to live in, rebel against them, and become their victims. His background in theater taught him to be one of the most economical filmmakers in the business, able to pack a lot of nuance into a line and play out entire scenes in unobtrusive long takes that don’t steal the show from the actors. He kept his winning streak going until his death, ending his career with arguably one of his best films, Before the devil knows you’re deada crime drama that is left to its own devices until its characters are destroyed by the oldest social system in the world: the family.

Before the devil knows you’re dead

When two brothers organize a robbery of their parents’ jewelry store, the job goes horribly wrong, setting off a chain of events that take them, their father, and the wife of one of the brothers to a harrowing climax.

Release date

26 September 2007

Duration

117 minutes

Main genre

crime

Authors

Kelly Masterson

studio

ThinkFilm

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What is “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” about?

Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are brothers who are both in financial trouble. Andy is a drug-addicted finance manager who insists on pursuing a more prosperous life for himself and his wife Gina (Marisa Tomei), although they already live in a very upscale neighborhood. Hank, a child with developmental delays who only has a job thanks to his brother, is way behind on his child support payments and has neither a sense of financial responsibility nor a backbone. The two seem hopeless until Andy hatches a plan: They were supposed to organize a robbery on a small jewelry storebecause it is worth a total of $600,000 and is fully insured. The only problem is that It is a business owned by their own parentsCharles (Albert Finney) and Nanette (Rosemary Harris), a fact that Andy is fully aware of and does not care about, while Hank is horrified by the prospect. But Hank’s codependent loyalty to his brother forces him to go along with it, and The robbery goes spectacularly wrong and Nanette is shotbecause she was unexpectedly working at the store on the day of the robbery. This is just the opening salvo of a film that continually confronts the audience with an ever-tightening coffin being patiently sanded down by a world-class carpenter.

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This Oscar-winning crime drama offers an unpredictable, gripping thriller

It also serves as a sharp political commentary.

From the outset, the film differs from other crime films in its complicated flashback structure. First, we are shown the robbery in its entirety, free of any known dramatic context, then we go back in time to see how it was originally planned. The film does this constantly throughout the narrative. shows us most of the action and then pulls us back to see how the action exploded from different perspectives. Instead of a Rashomon-Style collective of contradictory memories, A web of the limited visions of individuals is createdthat fit together like jagged puzzle pieces, creating a bigger picture of despair and regret. Everyone here acts like they know enough to form an opinion, but the narrative construction lays out how much everyone has been missing or ignoring what was right in front of them all this time. Even more poignant, the structure evokes the idea that the past forever hovers over everything we do in the present, pushing us further toward our destiny, the ghost on our shoulder. That ghost takes the form of fatherhood, as the film ultimately announces itself as an examination of the destructive damage that an unfulfilled father-son dynamic can wreak on everyone involved.

The father-son bond in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is an all-encompassing tragedy

The particularly grueling thing about learning the background stories of the central family bit by bit is that There is no obvious traumatic incident that could trigger existential fear. There is just the uncomfortable, deeply unfair dilemma when your father simply wasn’t the person you needed, and you weren’t the son your father wanted you to be. Hank is too much of a doting puppy to question his rank in the family, but Andy sinks into self-loathing and hatred, knowing that his father never cared for him as much as he did for Hank. Andy knows that his life is not as promising as it should be, and he blames his father for it. The depth of his despise for his father is only revealed when he and Hank argue about how best to cover their tracks, and in a moment of lack of confession, Andy says he regrets that it was Nanette, not Charles, who was shotWhile Charles seems more preoccupied with his own grief over Nanette’s injury, he is privately aware of his mistakes as a father, but his pride prevents him from talking about them.

This culminates in perhaps the most haunting scene in the film, when Andy and Charles come face to face after both have been beset by a myriad of unfortunate events. Andy and Charles sit across from each other at a table, unable to even look at each other, seemingly sharing their oppression and confusion. The two eventually talk about their feelings – Andy feeling like an outsider in his own family and Charles feeling like he has to push Andy to be better than he was. There is also Andy’s resentment that Hank was treated more lovingly, which Charles defends by saying Hank is “the baby” and needs more love. They both claim their love is genuine, but Charles feels so drained and Andy remains cold and spiteful, going so far as to accuse Charles of not being his real father. Charles is so insulted by this notion that he punches Andy in the face, which might be one of the most realistic slaps you see in a movie, and the two break up afterward. It’s perhaps the most excruciating scene to listen to, which is quite a feat considering this is a film where innocent people are shot for no good reason. It’s so excruciating because Hoffman and Finney are so incredibly good at supporting each other, putting years of pain and outrage into such simple words, and they all speak to the level of acting that Lumet was able to muster.

The performances in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” make the film a truly masterful chamber drama

Lumet was always known for his sure instinct for actors and received a wide range of outstanding performances from actors of all kinds, and Before the devil knows you’re dead has arguably one of its strongest casts. Most impressive is the way all four main family members are actors who don’t seem to have much in common, either physically or personality-wise, and Yet they are all so credible as people who have borne the burden of unspoken family burdens for years. Although they spend little time together on screen, Finney and Harris are so affectionate towards each other that it is not noticeable. Lumet’s direction hides important details under the cloak of their shared daily routine. The first scenes, in which Charles must study for an aptitude test, play an important role in the development of his pride and his normally boisterous personality, and Finney plays them with such ease that you can see how well he can cope and how that pride can rub off on his children. The truths he gradually has to discover about himself and his children become a heartbreaking process, as Finney robs Charles of his security and self-denial, leaving him frightened and without any hope..

Similarly, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke are so implodingly grotesque as brothers who have lived on a mutually agreeable basis for so long that resolving conflict has become a shared nightmare. Hawke has made a name for himself among actors as a poet-philosopher, and usually brings a touch of intellectualism and street smarts to his characters. That makes it surprising how great he is as a dimwitted oaf who is almost helpless to solve his problems on his own, who complains about money problems and yet is more inclined to throw his money out the window by drinking. As for Hoffman, this may actually be one of his best performances in a glittering career whose loss we mourn to this day. Hoffman could fit into any kind of movie and play almost any kind of person, but He was a master at radiating power and serenity to cover up a deep emotional woundand Andy does the job perfectly. The way his facade of wannabe kingpin cool gives way to desperation and nervous impulsiveness is jarring, while Hoffman finally explodes with the primal rage of a child unable to face the injustice of his life. Come to this film for Sidney Lumet’s almost invisibly assured direction, which gave us a perfect final round of applause, but stay for one of the last performances of screaming greatness we’ll see from Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Before the devil knows you’re dead can currently be streamed on Paramount+ in the US

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