‘Devil’ infiltrates cast of this film
Looking for a good movie to gather the family around with a bowl of popcorn?
Please, don’t pick up “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead.”
Never has there been a cast of nasty, disturbing, overwrought, ill-equipped, frightening, blood-thirsty characters.
Nobody, but nobody, in this film would you want visiting your home. Well maybe one person, but she is shot and on life support early in the film.
Actually, “Before the Devil” uses the multiple flashback technique, showing the same scene from different perspectives.
We all thought Quentin Tarantino was an innovator when he did a similar technique in “Pulp Fiction.”
But even though “Before the Devil” is violent and cruel as well, it doesn’t even approach Tarantino’s epic.
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Andy Hanson. Ethan Hawke is his brother, Hank. First, you have to swallow the idea these two are brothers.
Both are in need of more money than their real estate jobs provide. Big brother Andy has a great idea, rob a mom and pop jewelry store. The fact the store is insured makes it “a victimless crime,” he says.
But this isn’t just any mom and pop store. The mom and pop in this store happens to be owned by their own parents.
Now I’m a bit hazy about all the reasoning behind this. The Hoffman character can’t be involved in the robbery because he would be recognized. But baby brother Hawke character can be involved. Huh?
But Hawke is uneasy about the whole situation. Who wouldn’t? So he hires someone else to do the actual robbery, while he sits in the get-away car, wearing a wig and false mustache.
The robbery scene is really well staged, as is much of this film. The robbery doesn’t go well. The mom, played much of the film on life support, is Danielle Hanson.
So the two brothers spend most of the film crying, screaming, shaky, rude and crude, because they botched a robbery at their parents’ store that ended with their mother’s death.
They also reason there’s nothing to trace them to this horrible crime, until the sister of the hired gun gets her boyfriend to blackmail the pair. He is spookily played by Michael Shannon.
How mean are everyone in the cast? Hawke’s character has a daughter by a former wife. The Hawke character, before the robbery, promises he will come up with more than $100 for her to go on a class trip. She’s played by Sarah Livingston.
After the robbery, when he can’t get her the money, she screams and pouts and calls him a loser. Hey kid, your grandmother just died in a cruel, violent, terrible way. Why do you care so much about a crummy class trip?
Albert Finney plays the grieving Charles Hanson and Marisa Tomei is the luscious wife of the Hoffman character, but is having an affair with the Hawke character.
Anyone who you might think will be killed and a few more, are killed, in the most violent manner.
That might not be so bad, but there is no redemption here.
Sidney Lumet, directs. His past efforts include “Network,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and “12 Angry Men.”
Maybe he could rename “Before the Devil Knows Your Dead” “A Lot More than 12 Angry Men.”
FROM WEEKENDER, Aug. 29, 2008
BEFORE THE DEVIL
KNOWS YOUR DEAD
• Rated R for strong, graphic sexuality, nudity, violence, drug use and language
• Runtime: 118 minutes
• Directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Kelly Master
• 2 stars out of 5
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