Review of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) by Christopher S — 20 Nov 2011

The Bible teaches us that the love of money is the root of all evil. The love of money leads to greed which can lead to pride and eventually to destruction. Two brothers, Andy and Hank, will discover how far the love of money will cost them and those they love the most.

In the Film "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" Two dysfunctional brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) get tired of competing for who is the bigger fuck-up and who Daddy (Albert Finney) loves more, so they hatch a hair-brained scheme to rob Mommy and Daddy's jewelry store so that they can clear their debts and start fresh. Sounds like a great plan except that this is a throwback to the suspenseful 1970's about a heist gone wrong, and boy, do things really go wrong here for these poor bastards and everyone involved. Beautifully developed by screenwriter Kelly Masterson and classically executed by director Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon, Network) "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" uses the heist as its "McGuffin" to delve deep into family drama.

The uniqueness of Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is the manner in which the story is told. After the robbery goes wrong, the story is told from a variety of different points of view from various days before and after the robbery attempt. We learn more about the motivations of not only Andy and Hank but also the reaction to their father Charles (Albert Finney) to the death of his wife. The relationship between Charles and his two sons, especially to Andy, is also explored and another possible motivation of sorts is discovered after it is revealed that there is little love between the two men. Nanette may have been dearly loved by her sons but their father is a different story.

Everything from the screenplay, the pacing, the editing, to the acting is superb. Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant, He proves once more why he is one of the most impressive actors working Hollywood today by portraying Andy as not only a greedy criminal with lack of morality but also, in contradictory way, as a man we can sympathize with. Ethan Hawke also brings Hank alive not just as a loser but really as a man just desperate to hang on to what little he has left. Andy and Hank are thus brought to life in such a realistic way that it is easy to think of them as not just characters but the very real images of lost and confused men who now find themselves facing the consequence of their actions. Marisa Tomei is still impressively gorgeous and sexy, showing a magnificent body...I mean just amazing how sexy she is in this. She does a great job playing off Hoffman & Hawke. Albert Finney is perfect as a vengeful man thrown into an impossible situation. We also get some great performances from Michael Shannon and Brian F. O'Byrne.

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead is a moral tale about how our actions lead to consequences that we otherwise might not expect to face. More than that, our choices also can affect those around us in ways we never expected. In what should have been best picture of the year, we see how lives are easily broken when the love of money becomes the ultimate pursuit in order to ease our troubled lives. In other words, there are no easy fixes or answers to our problems and trying to find them can only make things worse.