Lumet’s Seductively Nasty Dead a Noir Delight
Brothers Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are struggling. Both men are seeing their finances crumble, the former thanks to his drug habit and his desire to please his sexy trophy wife Gina (Marisa Tomei), the latter because of his demanding ex-wife Martha (Amy Ryan) and his longing to give his only daughter every little thing her heart desires.
Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman are in over their heads in ThinkFilms' Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
It is Andy who hatches the plan to rob their parents Charles (Albert Finney) and Nanette’s (Rosemary Harris) suburban jewelry store. At first Hank is nervous and unsure of the proposal, but as debts mount his older brother’s constant urging soon gets the better of him. But things go horrifically out of control resulting in the death of a career criminal who shouldn’t have even been there while also tragically sticking the duo’s mother in the hospital.
Suddenly both men are fraying at the seams, every piece of their lives starting to crumble away like dead leaves torn apart by the wind. Soon a shady character named Dex (Michael Shannon) has tracked them down and surmised their parts in this drama. He wants $10,000 to keep his mouth shut which, thanks to the botched robbery, is far more than either man has. Now what was first a bad idea has now become a nightmare, and with their father starting to come to the sickening realization his only sons might not be as innocent as they claim the worst might just be yet to come.
Esteemed filmmaker Sidney Lumet’s (Prince of the City, Dog Day Afternoon, Network) latest crime epic Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a hard-boiled noir just dripping in dingy authenticity. At 83 young years of age this Oscar-nominated dynamo proves to still have it behind the camera, this effort easily the strongest by the director since 1990’s Q&A, maybe even since 1988’s Running on Empty. The movie evokes the ghosts of Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Robert Siodmak and Don Siegel, the grit and grime so thick a person almost feels covered in its ghoulishly seductive sheen as they walk out of the movie theater.
The thing is, as brilliant as some of this is (and certain scenes and moments, especially the crackerjack final ten minutes, are definitely spectacular) I still wouldn’t necessarily call the film a completely satisfying experience. The film was the talk of the Toronto Film Festival and part of me can’t help but feel this had more due to Lumet’s legacy then to anything else, writer Kelly Masterson’s debut script a bit too cute and contrived to be called anything other than a bit of a mixed bag.
What’s the problem? Masterson and Lumet choose to tell the tale in a series of overlapping non-linear flashbacks each one from a particular character’s point of view. This Rashomon-like device has a distancing effect keeping the players pretty much at arms length, and by the time things were hurtling towards their deliciously violent conclusions my emotional investment was still pretty close to nil.
Still, overall Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is giant gobs of nihilistic noirish fun. Lumet has a field day orchestrating all of the coal-black antics, while Finney, Hawke, Tomei and especially Hoffman relish every moment they have on-screen living inside their respective characters. And that wonderfully anarchic final is truly something special, the director building the tension with such wickedly devilish virtuosity it’s impossible not to become engulfed by it. The whole sequence is bravura filmmaking at its absolute best, Lumet proving that even in his eighth decade he still has the master’s touch and an ability to keep audiences blissfully entertained.
Film Rating: êêê (out of 4)
Additional Links:
- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Theatrical Trailer
