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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead | 
 enlarge | Director: Sidney Lumet
Actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei
Studio: Egami
Category: Movie
Buy New: $3.99
Rating:  95 reviews
Sales Rank: 234
Genre: Drama
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Video On Demand
Running Time: 117 Minutes
ASIN: B0019KBHKM
Theatrical Release Date: October 26, 2007
Release Date: September 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 90 more reviews...
 A Family Implosion April 20, 2008
Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States)
183 out of 193 found this review helpful
The full title of this film is 'May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead', a rewording of the old Irish toast 'May you have food and raiment, a soft pillow for your head; may you be 40 years in heaven, before the devil knows you're dead.' First time screenwriter Kelly Masterson (with some modifications by director Sidney Lumet) has concocted a melodrama that explores just how fragmented a family can become when external forces drive the members to unthinkable extremes. In this film the viewer is allowed to witness the gradual but nearly complete implosion of a family by a much used but, here, very sensible manipulation of the flashback/flash forward technique of storytelling. By repeatedly offering the differing vantages of each of the characters about the central incidents that drive this rather harrowing tale, we see all the motivations of the players in this case of a robbery gone very wrong.
Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a wealthy executive, married to an emotionally needy Gina (Marisa Tomei), and addicted to an expensive drug habit. His life is beginning to crumble and he needs money. Andy's ne're-do-well younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) is a life in ruins - he is divorced from his shrewish wife Martha (Amy Ryan), is behind in alimony and child support, and has borrowed all he can from his friends, and he needs money. Andy proposes a low-key robbery of a small mall mom-and-pop jewelry store that promises safe, quick cash for both. The glitch is that the jewelry story belongs to the men's parents - Charles (Albert Finney) and Nanette (Rosemary Harris). Andy advances Hank some cash and wrangles an agreement that Hank will do the actual robbery, but though Hank agrees to the 'fail-safe' plan, he hires a friend to take on the actual job while Hank plans to be the driver of the getaway car. The robbery is horribly botched when Nanette, filing in for the regular clerk, shoots the robber and is herself shot in the mess. The disaster unveils many secrets about the fragile relationships of the family and when Nanette dies, Charles and Andy and Hank (and their respective partners) are driven to disastrous ends with surprises at every turn.
Each of the actors in this strong but emotionally acrid film gives superb performances, and while we have come to expect that from Hoffman, Hawke, Tomei, Finney, Ryan, and Harris, it is the wise hand of direction from Sidney Lumet that make this film so unforgettably powerful. It is not an easy film to watch, but it is a film that allows some bravura performances that demand our respect, a film that reminds us how fragile many families can be. Grady Harp, April 08
A thrilling and powerful film. November 25, 2007
Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is one of the most thrilling crime dramas of recent years, proving that the octogenarian Sidney Lumet is just as brilliant a director as he ever was. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke, looking like Francis Bacon caricatures of themselves, play financially strapped brothers who decide to solve their cash flow problems by robbing their parents' jewelry store. Needless to say, the robbery goes very, very wrong. The tense, fragmentary screenplay fills us in bit by bit as to the robbery, the events leading up to it and its aftermath, showing us not only the brothers' growing desperation but the family rivalries and character weaknesses that made the final tragedy inevitable. The final scene, a grotesque mockery of the perfect crime the brothers envisioned, suggests that apples never fall far from the tree. Like a crazed, three-way cross between "Memento," "The Asphalt Jungle" and "Death of a Salesman," "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" keeps viewers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. Hawke gives an indelible portrait of a pathetic loser (even his young daughter pegs him as such) and Hoffman is even better as the domineering elder brother, whose masterful calm is only skin-deep. The supporting players match the leads; Albert Finney, as Hoffman and Hawke's father, plays the last half of the film in a whirlwind of disbelieving grief and anger, his face twisted into a gargoyle mask of pain. Rosemary Harris gives a poignant performance as the family matriarch, while Marisa Tomei and Amy Ryan are impeccable as Hoffman's wife and Hawke's ex. "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" can justifiably be considered as the best movie in Lumet's career. Considering that his other movies include "Twelve Angry Men," "Network" and "Dog Day Afternoon," that's saying something.
Riveting and Heartwrenching December 20, 2007
Carlos Rodriguez (Miami, Fl.)
17 out of 22 found this review helpful
I have to agree with the other reviewer this movie is excellent all around. The sex scene which opens the film is out of place as I felt that it would of probably worked better had it appeared later on in the film instead of at the beginning which is really pointless. That said "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" is one of the best movies of 2007. One of the things that I really look forward when I go see a movie or play is the acting which in this film is exceptional. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play estranged brothers who plan the perfect crime which turns out horribly wrong. The performances of both of these actors are superb. They're two of the finest actors of their generation I feel. The writing is wonderful which makes for a perfectly written screenplay and Sidney Lumet's directing is the best we've seen since his glory years with both "Serpico and "Dog Day Afternoon" starring the legendary Al Pacino.
This movie is not to be missed. I am however disappointed that it never received the promotion that it should have. I didn't know that the movie was released until I saw the trailer on an internet site. Both Hoffman (Best Actor)and Hawke (Best Supporting Actor) deserve Oscar nominations for their electrifying performances which was nothing less than spectacular. Lumet should also be granted a nomination for Best Director and the movie itself deserves an Oscar nod in the category of Best Picture. I can't say enough about this movie, if you haven't seen it go see it if you can find it playing somewhere. If not rent or buy the film when is released on DVD on April 15, 2008. You will not be disappointed. If you care about movies that are emotionally soul stirring and have depth and if you're interested in excellence in acting (as I do) you cannot afford to miss this amazing movie.
Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave, When First We Practice To Deceive May 17, 2008
prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
13 out of 17 found this review helpful
"Sidney Lumet's "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" is such a superb crime melodrama that I almost want to leave it at that. To just stop writing right now and advise you to go out and see it as soon as you can. I so much want to avoid revealing plot points that I don't even want to risk my usual strategy of oblique hints. You deserve to walk into this one cold." Roger Ebert
Sidney Lumet at the age of 83 has again directed a film for the ages. A film of a family falling down, round and apart. Philip Seymour Hoffman is amazing as the older brother in the family. He works for a successful real estate office in NYC. His younger bro, Ethan Hawke shows us how very great an actor he can be, and works for the same agency. The Greek Tragedy begins when a plan to rob a suburban jewelry store goes all wrong. The mom and pop of this store are in reality Andy and Hank's parents. Would you, could you rob your own family? You could if you needed money badly enough it seems. Andy and Hank are in great need of money. Hoffman as Andy, has a habit that leads him to illegal drugs. Hank Hanson, Ethan Hawke, has a snarly ex-wife who wants her child support and cares naught how Hank gets the money. As Sir Francis Scott has said 'Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive'.
Albert Finney plays Andy and Hank's dad. His fine acting lends this film the reality of the quintessential dysfunctional family. His actions, so akin to a Greek Tragedy seal the fate of this film. The two sons who have always pandered for best loved son, can now give it up. The family relationships are not explained and it is up to us to get to know them. Mom, Rosemary Harris, has a small part but is the agent of change in this film. Marisa Tomei the wife of Andy and lover of Hank, ah, we are beginning to see the light here, plays the tragically ignored wife.
"My grandfather, whose background was not so different from Mr. Lumet's, was dismissive of movies that seemed overly dark or despairing. "There wasn't a single decent human being in the whole movie," he used to complain. He might not have found any in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," but he would also have recognized the humanism that saves this harsh tale from nihilism. The screen may be full of losers, liars, killers and thieves, but behind the camera is a mensch." A O Scott
Messy, emotional, melodramatic, film noir is my beat. This film has it all.
Highly Recommended prisrob 05-17-08
The Savages
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Pope John Paul II
A very chilling and engrossing film! November 30, 2007
RMurray847 (Albuquerque, NM United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I had a pretty good idea of the basic plot when I walked into the theatre. Two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) plan to hold up a jewelry store in a strip mall...and the store is owned by THEIR PARENTS. I also knew it bounced around in time a little.
What I didn't expect was such an unrelenting look at a whole bunch of magnificently screwed-up people! WOW! I was left almost breathless by the new depths to which these folks could sink. It was a family tragedy, but there sure wasn't anything noble about these characters.
Hawke is the younger brother, and he works for the same company as his brother, but in a fairly lowly position, and he can barely make ends meet. He's way behind on his child support, and his daughter is growing more and more aggravated with him because he can't follow through on his promises to her to do things like fund her field trip to go see THE LION KING on Broadway. He appears to be ever so slighly dim-witted, although that may just be the drugs. He lives in a rough apartment and has some pretty rough friends.
Hoffman is the older brother, and while on the surface he may appear to be a little more together (he has a fairly responsible accounting position in the company)...we actually see as the movie progresses that he's in some seriously deep trouble. His marriage to Marisa Tomei is very much on the rocks, and the only good times they had recently were on vacation in South America. He believes he can start a new life down there, and keep his marriage going...but how to fund such a move? He's also into some pretty hefty drugs and even his larger salary can't fund it all.
It's his idea to rip-off the parents. ("Hey, they're insured.") Hawke finally buys into it, and they enter into the plot. It isn't spoiling much (because we see it so early in the film) to say that things don't exactly go smoothly! I won't say more, so you can see for yourself.
So why are these two guys SO screwed up? We see some of this as more scenes between the boys and their parents are revealed. In particular, we see their relationships with their father, Albert Finney. He's an old man now, but we get the idea that when he was younger, he was pretty tough old bird, difficult to please, lacking in affection and just a real poor father. Scenes with mother Rosemary Harris are fewer and less illuminating. It's really a story about how men in a family can screw each other up. BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD takes this idea to EXTREMES.
Towards the end, the actions of Hoffman in particular become almost monumentally deranged. We believe that he is doing what he's doing...but it's hard not to gasp in dismay. He is truly a completely broken and desparate man. All sympathy we might have had for him is gone...just like any sense of a moral compass he might have had. And Albert Finney arguably goes even one step more off the path of righteousness at the very end.
Anyway, I hope you get that this is not a happy, light film. But it is powerful, astonishingly well acted and written, and an absolute must-see. It's a riveting time at the theatre!!!
Hoffman is brilliant...pure and simple. His work here easily equals anything he's done before. I don't know if the film will be an Oscar contender, because it has such a small audience...but it should be and absolutely Hoffman should be up for Best Actor. Hawke is also very good...he is a complete coward and makes up both sympathize him and despise him. He could be up for Best Supporting Actor. Finney is always an imposing presence...and he's very good here. Again, I can't tell you too much without spoiling the plot line, but let's say he goes very convincingly from distraught to enraged. Marisa Tomei does another masterful performance as the woman who unknowingly is the downfall of the men in her life (in some ways...don't accuse me of being a chauvenist...I'm just saying that a lot of the choices the characters make revolve around trying to please her). She gives a brave performance (she spends a lot of time in the nude) and is her usual mixture of sultry and defenseless. If her role in IN THE BEDROOM got her a nomination (which she deserved) then I think she could have another one here.
Director Sidney Lumet may be getting on in years...but my goodness, he sure doesn't hesitate to step right into some very murky and unpleasant waters. His film is super specific, has a wonderful sense of place and he also gives his great cast the space they need to "do their stuff." No quick edits, or blitzkreig pacing when it doesn't suit. He believes we will be gripped by the story, and he's right.
This is not a film for the kids! Nor is it a film for someone looking for a glossy Hollywood film. It's pretty brutal and uncompromising. But I couldn't tear myself away, and the audience I saw it with was clearly as mesmerized as I was. GREAT stuff!!!
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