Before The Devil Knows You're Dead

Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon, The Pawnbroker, Long Day's Journey Into Night) directed this tense character study that focuses on the relationship between two brothers. Both Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank Hanson (Ethan Hawke) are neck-deep in money problems. Their solution is to rob the jewelry store that their parents have owned and operated for years. It is supposed to be a piece of cake, but everything goes horribly wrong. Ultimately, the two men have to deal with their bereaved father (Albert Finney), who is determined to find the people responsible for the murder of his beloved wife (Rosemary Harris). Reminiscent of the Coen Brothers' Fargo, the film boasts some fine performances, especially from Hoffman and Hawke. Grim, gritty, and completely memorable.

Be glad the Coen brothers never got their hands on this story-- after all, there is such a thing as too dark a comedy...

...and in fact nothing remotely funny breaks surface here. Instead, director Sidney Lumet (he of The Pawnbroker and Dog Day Afternoon) and first-time screenwriter Kelly Masterson deliver the sort of merciless generational tragedy Euripides might have savored: long-smothered rage achieves a critical mass, an improvised hold-up goes terribly wrong, and a family shatters under the impact of multiple, unforgivable betrayals. Moreover, as atrocities mount it becomes clear that what is really driving events toward catastrophe is a final settling of scores between a father and a son.

Director and screenwriter are blessed with memorable performances by Philip Seymour Hoffman (is there anything this guy can't do?) and Ethan Hawke (in as difficult a role as that mastered by Tim Robbins in Mystic River) as two utterly mismatched brothers; by Albert Finney as the distant, agonized patriarch; and by Marisa Tomei as the daughter-in-law waiting out an extinct marriage.

Those who liked Inside Man, the afore-mentioned Mystic River, and Fargo should take a look at Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.