Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

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Before the Devil Knows You're ...

Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Aleksa Palladino

When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelery store the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that sends them, their father and one brother's wife hurtling towards...( read more  read more... ) a shattering climax.

Id: 10888127

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Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Recent Reviews
  • lewiskendell
    October 27, 2009
    lewiskendell
    Before the Devil Knows You're dead is a movie about misery and bad decisions. Misery leads to more misery, and bad decisions made because of misery, that in turn lead to even more misery.

    The specific kind of misery involved here is the brand unique to families. Misery resultin...( read more)g because the poor relationships between father and son, husband and wife, and father and daughter. There may be a crime at the center of the plot, but it's never really the movie's focus.

    The acting is as good as you expect. Seeing Hoffman and Tomei in the same movie was a treat, because they are two of my favorite people in Hollywood. There are no weak spots in the cast to think of. And the re-occuring theme music that plays from time to time in key scenes? Awesome.

    Much of the movie moves at a slightly subdued pace, and I'm sure there are people who won't care for that. But when an intense scene does happen, you won't be able to look away.
  • Chiefilms
    October 10, 2009
    Chiefilms
    Non-linear story telling making a mess of a crazy plot, time shifts are constant as the scenes change like a Tarantino flick. Eerie and depressing conclusions but the cast and performances are excellent. Family destroys itself in this film, terrible. Albert Finney's facial exp...( read more)ressions are weeeirrd. Ethan Hawke makes some bizarre noises, and Marisa Tomei is always getting naked. Sidney's lost it!
  • ceWEBrity
    September 5, 2009
    ceWEBrity
    Oh, I didn't really care for this one. The casting is desperately unimaginative (Hawke is a spineless crybaby, PSH yells a lot and is stressed, Marisa Tomei is an inconsequential sexpot) and the narrative is interlaced with hilariously bad ~flashbacks~, denoted with a hilariously...( read more) shitty editing trick. Sidney Lumet probably watched a bunch of new movies and decided that chronological fuckery was the easiest way to modernize his material, which could have been made in 1975 and no one would have noticed.

    The critical rapture over this movie frankly stuns me and I think that a lot of people were just poised to herald a RETURN TO FORM!!! for Mister Lumet. Also, I think this movie came at a time when public and critical fondness for Philip Seymour Hoffman was hitting a fever pitch, which may have sharpened the enthusiasm. I've since learned that I just don't care for him in what I've seen. He has, to my knowledge, exactly one good performance (The Savages) and in everything else he plays the same emasculated, Napoleonic sap. Anyone who will listen also knows my overwhelming hatred for Ethan Hawke. I choose to just perpetually associate him in my mind to Jesse from Before Sunrise/Sunset and then I'm not so angry. I've never seen Tomei in much but I think she's an interesting presence here, and though the movie is ultimately not concerned with her, it would also be weaker if she wasn't there. Unfortunately, her performance is wasted on what is one step above a stock character, just as the rest of these are. Chock full of ready-made daddy issues and fits of insecurity, we're somehow supposed to care that this fucked-up, uninteresting, unlikable family is devouring itself whole. It's more or less like watching a highbrow episode of Jerry Springer; entertaining on a primal level, but still base and obnoxious and furiously empty.
  • 76Majikat
    July 12, 2009
    76Majikat
    An extremely surprising find with possibly Ethan Hawke?s best performance to date, plus great performances from both Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Albert Finney. The flashbacks are a tad tiresome at times, but the editing of them are very clever in the storytelling. A unique angl...( read more)e for the ?robbery? theme films and one that just got better and better as it went on.
  • stopitgoaway
    April 28, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    Watching Before The Devil counts as one of my all time best experiences at the cinema. I have been intrigued my the mixed response to the film - and for me, the extremes of opinion indicate the film touched on something either embraced or disavowed by the general audience. It is ...( read more)one of those films that has stayed with me, and I continue to ponder and think about it.

    Surely the DVD would illuminate some more of the themes and the film-making elements? Which include: Sidney Lumet's comeback movie, the time-shifting technique deployed in the storytelling, the superb combination of Lumet and Masterson and why it works so well, the masterly direction, the relatively rare focus Hollywood movies give to male characters and their largely doomed struggle to become an open cheque book for their women, the under-presented, but nevertheless resonant Marisa Tomei's performance, and, of course, the superb Hoffman with that central monologue about the sum of his parts - for me the heart of the movie.

    Phew! Surely a masterful film. So imagine my disappointment watching the eagerly anticipated DVD - only to find no commentary, no behind-the-scenes, no interviews, no extras.

    Hey - distributors - sort it out!
  • MisterTuttle
    December 22, 2009
    MisterTuttle
    Photobucket

    The film opens, literally, with the first shot being one of dog...( read more)gystyle proportions. It's between Hoffman and Tomei, looks pretty real, but looks can be deceiving. After the sex is happiness. They laugh, they talk until Tomei's character feels sad all of a sudden. It sets the tone for the rest of the film because what you're about to see is a tale of two brothers whose lives are about to sink lower than the lowest.

    We begin at the day of the robbery of a jewelry store. It fails, but what was the reason for it? The film isn't in chronological order. It skips around to different points of view of three people: Two brothers, Hank and Andy, The father, Charles.

    Hank is a washed up loser. He's also sleeping with Andy's wife, Played by Tomei. Hank is in debit, paying child support to his bitch of an ex wife, he's not doing very good. He goes to the devil, which is his brother Andy played by Hoffman, and is given 2,000 in advance to help rob their parents jewelry store. At first Hank doesn't go along with it, but he has literally nothing to lose since his ex wife and daughter both hate his guts, he goes ahead and becomes the devil's minion.

    Hank gets a friend, a convict, to help him out with the robbery. Since this friend has been there and done that in the robbery department, he goes ahead inside the jewelry store leaving Hank to be the driver.

    It doesn't work out. The mother shoots the guy and he shoots the mother, later putting her in a coma. She's wounded at first giving her the chance to fire one last shot at this asshole killing him as he falls back through the glass door.

    "Simple as a pimple, right?" Wrong.

    Why does Andy want to Rob his own parents? The thing about Andy is that he was the first born son, leading to the second which was Hank who turned out to be the one who got the most attention. Andy always felt he wasn't part of the "club" that is his family. So why? Why do this? I mean, Andy is a realtor in the high ranks pulling in six figures and yet he has to rob his parents.

    The heist is a farce which becomes a tragedy. Well done in the storytelling! The father is stuck with pulling the plug on his wife since she isn't going to make a full recovery. "Pull the plug." The father is pissed off and wants to know who started all of this shit. He becomes Mr. Detective for a while becoming suspicious once the robber has been identified. Something is rotten and it's in the family. All signs eventually point to Andy.

    All the characters are unlikeable, but it's hard to not stop watching them because you want to see how even lower they will go. The performances from all involved are intense and the direction from Lumet is well done.
  • devilsdisciple
    December 19, 2009
    devilsdisciple
    maybe the last sidney lumet's movie and surely he doesn;t disappoint evean at 83
    Albert Finney and Philip Seymour Hoffman were incredible in this non linearly narrated movie.

    hats off to sidney lumet and for all his contribution to cinema
  • F0XyF0x
    December 10, 2009
    F0XyF0x
    It was a very good movie.
  • esprite
    December 9, 2009
    esprite
    Much too melancholic and pessimistic for my tastes.
  • tnoose
    December 7, 2009
    tnoose
    So much more than a usual heist movie!!
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