Director Sidney Lumet never ceases to amaze. Now in his early 80s, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead proves he can still direct a film better than most filmmakers half his age. It’s powerfully crafted, intensely paced and brilliantly acted from all involved players, and a film that’s easily his best since Network (1976).
Surely by now you’ve heard about the opening scene of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. It opens with the rather shapely Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) having sex with Gina (Marisa Tomei). They are a husband and wife couple, so nothing is really too out of the ordinary here except for the way it’s presented. Andy looks at himself in a mirror on the opposite side of the room and the act goes on. Gina is quite the catch compared with Andy’s larger physique. Perhaps it is this moment where he decides it is time to better his situation. It’s one of the most talked about moments in cinema this year but not nearly the most memorable in this film.
The screenplay, written by first-timer Kelly Masterson, follows two brothers Andy and Hank (Ethan Hawke), as they organize a robbery to help get them out of some financial woes. The heist is to take place at a small jewelry store that happens to be owned by their parents. They plan the event to happen on a day neither parent will be there. Hank decides he should bring in a friend to the operation, to actually do the robbery, while he waits in the car outside. The guy brings a gun though, and the robbery ends up going terribly wrong. The simplistic plan never accounted for their mom having to work that day.
Don’t let this simplistic sounding plot detail turn you away from this movie. The foiled robbery is just a taste of what the rest of the film has to offer. This isn’t a film about crime as much as it is a family picture. Andy and Hank haven’t built the perfect lives for themselves and it’s clear that some of their habits may have rooted from their father Charles (Albert Finney). On the surface, he seems like a typical aged father but as the story progresses, it’s clear he knows his way around the world of crime.
Watching this family interact is like being present at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting where no one opens up. Something is buried within each of them and this accidental incident only makes matters worse.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is one of the most powerful and intense films of the year. Lumet proves here that age isn’t slowing him down anytime soon. We can only hope he has more of these up his sleeve in the future.
