by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
A Rated R 117 min.
Sidney Lumet has over 50 films to his name, many considered masterpieces, but the 83-year-old filmmaker has yet to win the coveted Best Director Academy Award. Lumet is not one to give up easily. His new film, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, is the octogenarian’s latest stab at that coveted Oscar. This time around he may just have a shot.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead takes the viewer into the crumbling worlds of Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke), brothers who are desperately seeking a way out of the holes they’ve dug for themselves. Andy’s been living beyond his means for quite some time and has been embezzling money from the company he works for to keep his trophy wife Gina (Marisa Tomei) in the dark about their financial woes. It also doesn’t help that the guy is addicted to heroine and coke. His younger sibling Hank is no better off, the only difference being he can’t hide it. Stuck living in a crappy studio apartment after his messy divorce, Hank can barely feed himself, let alone pay child support. When it becomes clear that Andy’s embezzlement is about to be found out, he hatches a plan to rob a mom and pop jewelry store. Knowing his brother is also desperate for some quick cash, he bullies Hank into doing the job. The hitch is the suburban jewelry shop is owned by their parents, Charles (Albert Finney) and Nanette (Rosemary Harris). When the robbery inevitably goes bad and Nanette is shot, the sons find themselves spiraling out of control, hurtling towards a destiny neither saw coming.
There isn’t really an ounce of humanity in most of the film’s characters, the doomed mother being the only exception. Thankfully this isn’t a story about redemption; it’s a story about what happens when everything falls apart, and these despicable characters implode in a truly captivating, thought-provoking way. Writer Kelly Masterson weaves a mean modern-day noir, with morally bankrupt characters you loathe and a bleak look at a world that is described at one point near the film’s climax as “an evil place.”
Through clever editing, Lumet makes Masterson’s fairly straight-forward story mesmerizing by telling it from different perspectives in a non-linear timeline. We go back and fourth in time, picking up pieces of conversations dropped earlier, finding out where one character went after leaving another the scene before. The technique forces the viewer to pay attention and makes repeated viewings rewarding.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead will no doubt get a number of award nominations, particularly in the acting categories. Not a single role was miscast and each and every actor is at the top of their game here. Hoffman in particular truly embodies his character, adding far more depth and realism to the role than could have possibly been in the script. He’s downright chilling as Andy and it’s great to see him continue to do challenging work. Hawke, who has in the past failed to truly impress, makes up for any past missteps with his handling of slightly dim, 100% push-over Hank. The praise goes right on down the line, from Tomei (who dared to bare nearly all for this role and, at 42, puts most 20-somethings to shame in the hot bod department) to Finney to the sparsely utilized Harris to the guy walking his dog in the background.
While I can’t promise Lumet will take home his well-deserved Best Director Oscar, I can say Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead should put him in the running. After many, many years of many, many films, Lumet has proven he still has the goods and can keep up with the ever-evolving world of cinema. I sincerely hope he’s amply rewarded for all of his achievements, including this film, and that we see another Lumet very soon.
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