BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

Sidney Lumet Written by: Kelly Masterson Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris, Aleksa Palladino, Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan Distributed by Capitol Films & THINKFilm Film was released on 11th January 2008 in the U.K. Review by Matt Holmes

rating: 4.5

At 83 you would think a film-maker was just about done, especially a successful one like Sidney Lumet who no less than 50 years ago directed Henry Fonda to one of his best ever performances in the classic drama 12 Angry Men. What more could you possibly have to say, just three years post-Oscar lifetime achievement award, the usual sure sign that your career is done. But it's not so much a wonderful and amazing achievement that Lumet has crafted a good film twenty years after most people retire here in the U.K... it's the fact that the film is so exquisitely put together AND experimental within it's own genre that it feels like a debut frikkin' film from an up and coming new director. Continuing a string of fantastic performances like no other, Phillip Seymour Hoffman teams in a unlikely pairing with Ethan Hawke as two brothers who for their own reasons come up with the only solution to get out of their mediocre lives and solve their many screwed up personal problems and that's to rob the jewellery store that belongs to their parents. Sure it seems a little drastic but their parents will be at home, a 'blind' old lady will be looking after the store at the time of the robbery and it's not like the money isn't insured. Their parents will get the cash back, no-one will get hurt and they can go on with their lives, free from the constraints that are currently holding them back from being better or shall I say, richer men. Of course that's not how it goes down and that old term 'best laid plans...' couldn't be more suitable for this film. Hawke and Hoffman's descent into psychological madness with feelings of guilt, regret and remorse make for a fascinating character studie of this classic Greek tragedy of two desperate brothers who have fucked up badly... and will do anything to save their own skin. And yet, you can't help but feel for them both and the guilt almost comes out of the screen and into your body as you kinda want these guys to get away with it, and we are mechanically forced to do so without the placement of a real moral center. It's a dirty move from Lumet, but I loved it. Granted, Hoffman & Hawke don't necessarily in their appearance make it easy to believe they are siblings but they are both so good at their craft that you don't mind and their scenes together are terrifically written and performed. The incredibly hot Marisa Tomei (wait until you see this opening scene) gives a great performance as almost the 'trophy wife' of Hoffman and her scenes are interesting and a nice side-plot to what's going on here. Before The Devil Knows You're Dead reminds me of some of the real classic 70's classic crime movies like Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico (both Lumet directed) and with one of those Tarantino-esque time-shifting narratives, it comes alive and heightens the scenes when you experience them for a couple of persons points of view. Really terrifically done, and it's made to look so simple here in Lumet's film... but it's a plot device that would crumble in the hands of any lesser director. Albert Finney gives a stunning supporting performance as the Brothers parents, who is still able at 71 to grab the scene away from his opposing actor (even when it's Hoffman) and turn it into magic. He did it with Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum and last year in A Good Year and he is still able to do it again here. A great role about a poor man who gets roped into this hideous crime along with his wife, played by Spider-Man's Rosemary Harris. Watch out for two great scenes near the end, both involving Hoffman... one of which is a pathetic and painful attempt to break-down and actually feel angry. The complete opposite of the Citizen Kane break-down scene in Susan's apartment towards the end of that classic Welles movie and it's so powerful here, it nearly became unwatchable. The title of this near-masterpiece film comes from a saying from an Irish poet..."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." Perfect title for this deliciously sinister and wicked morality tale. This is one of the best films of 2007 and it deserves some Oscar recognition in the coming weeks.