Movie Review: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Sometimes you wish you were going into a movie with no expectations. Here, I agree with Roger Ebert: This movie, directed by Sidney Lumet, is meant to surprise you and challenge your expectations; and to know any part of the plot takes away from the skillful editing (by Tom Swartwout) and a script by Kelly Masterson that begins in the middle, goes forward, and then back, retreading some scenes from a different viewpoint and yet making a cohesive whole without the driving beat and sexual allure of Pulp Fiction.

The title, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, is the second part of an Irish saying that is flashed on the screen in full: May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.

The first scene, with the fully nude figures of an overweight man pounding a slender woman doggie style, is repellent. Where else but Hollywood would you have such a guy married to a woman so much prettier? What woman wears three-inch hoop earrings to bed?

This couple is finally having good sex because, away in Rio, the wife isn't reminded what a loser she is. Yet what about the guy, Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman)? What kind of clout does he have to have such a hot wife (Marisa Tomei) who can't cook or clean and isn't particularly a good lay?

Andy is supposedly the together, successful brother. Hank (Ethan Hawke), whom we meet later, is, both Andy and his father Charles (Albert Finney) agree, the weaker brother. Yet what is at the bottom of Hank's weakness really?

Having left his family's jewelry store business and gone into real estate, Andy now handles payroll for the firm. Unfortunately, Andy's first love isn't his lovely wife; it's his cocaine habit. He's been embezzling funds and the auditors are knocking at the door. He needs money and he comes up with a plan. For this, he needs his brother Hank who's behind on alimony and deeply in debt from paying the tuition for his daughter's private school.

While Hoffman's Andy is slick and self-contained, Hawke's Hank is restless, a man uncomfortable in his own skin, his good looks no longer a pathway to success now that he's out of high school. He is a lost soul, pale and often needing a shave, hoping only to shine now in the eyes of his daughter. He's also meeting every Thursday with his brother's wife for some hot sex. By looks alone, you think they belong together.

Article Author: Purple Tigress

Former theater critic for the LA Weekly and Los Angeles Times . For the last five years, an editing slave at a dot-com but recently laid off. Currently an under-employed freelance writer and artist.

Visit Purple Tigress's author page — Purple Tigress's Blog