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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Before.. Devil Knows You're Dead

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#1 of 3 Posted 10/27/07 3:46 PM

From harveykarten Posts 798 Last Feb-7
To All [Msg # 22718.1 ]

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey S. Karten
THINKFilm
Grade: B+
Directed by: Sidney Lumet:
Written By:   Kelly Masterson
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris, Bryan F.
O'Byrne, Amy Ryan
Screened at: Angelika Theater, NYC, 10/27/07
Opens: October 26, 2007

The ancient Greek tragedians wanted to warn their fellows: don’t mess with the gods or you’ll get into serious trouble. Their plays resonate with present-day people as well in their cautionary tales about families since, after all, Oedipus got into trouble for what he did with his mother, Agamemnon and Jason for what they did to dishonor their wives. Sidney Lumet’s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” the title coming from the Irish blessing "May you have food and rainment, A soft pillow for your head, and may you be forty years in heaven before the devil knows you're dead!" has Greek-tragic undertones which could prompt audience members to swear off families for good and live solitary, disconnected lives in Himalayan caves. The family under the microscope of Sidney Lumet (“Network,” “Dog Day Afternoon”) is riddled with financial insolvency, sibling rivalry, infidelity, fear, and drug addiction. Lumet, using Kelly Masterson’s screenplay–which opens on a jewelry heist then backtracks a while, goes back again and then once more–gains its tension through increasingly mounting problems of people who have gone out of their element in a plan to increase their wealth by what looked like a simple operation.

The picture’s prologue, which seems unnecessary, even unseemly given Philip Seymour Hoffman’s flabby body particularly when compared to the shapely form of Marisa Tomei. Andy Hanson (Hoffman) is having sex with his wife Gina (Tomei) in Rio, a joyous occasion which contrasts with the unsatisfying life they have in their luxurious flat back in Manhattan. Andy makes six figures as payroll chief of a large New York real estate firm but he’s in trouble with the IRS, he pays obviously huge rent on his apartment, and has an expensive drug habit. His younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), works for him, is divorced, and is burdened with child support obligations, a shrill ex-wife, and a bratty kid. He is in perpetual need of money. Andy convinces Hank to pull a robbery of a suburban Westchester jewelry store–their parents’!–which would be no problem for their folks, who would collect insurance. To say that the robbery was bungled would be the understatement of the year. While the brothers are increasingly bedeviled, the most heartbroken individual is their father, Charles (Albert Finney), whose loving relationship with his wife Nanette (Rosemary Harris) has not rubbed off on his children.

The men do not come off well at all. In the side roles, Bryan F. O’Byrne as Bobby, a cheap hustler and barfly willing to take on a shady job on his own up-the-ante conditions, is the biggest sleaze of all, while Bobby’s brother-in-law sees an opportunity for blackmail. Nor do the women, save for Nanette, exude reason for hope. “The world” is evil,” states an elderly jewelry trader in Manhattan’s 47th Street diamond district, a man who operates as a fence for stolen gems, and Lumet provides the Devil with quite so much business that the horned creature is bound to fail in his attempt to snare all of the rotten apples in Lumet’s jewel of a movie.

Rated R.    116 minutes   © 2007 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online

#2 of 3 Posted 10/29/07 5:43 PM

From B.F. Pinkerton Posts 727 Last 1/6/09
To harveykarten [Msg # 22718.2 22718.1 ]

I've heard good things about this film, though not such great reviews of Ethan Hawke's performance.

What I find really neat is that Lumet is 83 and still directing interesting, thought provoking films.

Another stressed out mom!

#3 of 3 Posted 10/29/07 10:17 PM

From harveykarten Posts 798 Last Feb-7
To B.F. Pinkerton [Msg # 22718.3 22718.2 ]

Stanley Kauffmann is 90 and still the reviewer for New Republic magazine!

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Harvey Karten's Reviews

Review: Before.. Devil Knows You're Dead

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