Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

The movie jumps starts with a Philip Seymour Hoffman fantasy and a Marisa Tomei nightmare. Actually, that's meant to be a joke, but I can imagine them meeting the first day, and then they have to shoot that opening scene. I can imagine the screenplay is pretty vague, saying something about a love scene in Rio for "Andy and Gina," and then director Sidney Lumet lays out his more specific vision for the two actors... not that the love scene is all that graphic, but it's an abrupt way into the movie, and it definitely does tell you something about Andy (Hoffman). Man, I don't like that big sweaty bastard from the beginning.

Neither Andy nor Hank (Ethan Hawke) are all that easy to like. One does drugs, the other doesn't pay his child support. Neither have got lives together and neither have the economic resources to dig themselves out of whatever physical or psychological holes they find themselves in.

And there are no lines the dudes won't cross. Hank has Thursday afternoon visits set aside with Gina (Tomei), and Andy has a plan to solve his and Hank's money problems by robbing a "mom and pop" jewelry store, even though the specific mom and pop is their own.

Do they have anyone to turn to for help? Apparently not. I can imagine their parents' reaction if they asked for money, but the robbery goes badly, and that's the rest of the movie.

This is director Lumet's final movie, but what a career. He was in his 80s when he made this one, but if you go all the way back to 1957, he was directing 12 Angry Men. I was thinking about that when I watched this one, and I was also thinking about watching 12 Angry Men... by that, I simply mean that I felt so sad and maybe almost empty watching Before the Devil... I wanted some sort of hope spot added somewhere. I wanted redemption. In this movie, the writer had a few characters that had no chance at redemption or improving their lives. It's just a very sad film with us following characters to their fated outcomes.

Rating: 4/5 stars

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