BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD
Director: Sidney Lumet Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris
Reviewed by MARCUS SINCLAIR
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead is the tale of a heist that goes terribly wrong. Sidney Lumet, working with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei, has fashioned a film that is several rungs above most that are produced in this genre. Hoffman dominates as the master-mind who plans the operation, Hawke carries it out, and Finney is the character who suffers unbearably and takes his revenge. All are brilliant. Even the supporting cast. All are three-dimensional.
Although he is not a visual stylist Lumet knows how to compose a scene. Throughout the film many are repeated, but they are either taken from a different angle or condensed and presented from a slightly different point of view. This gives a greater depth and understanding of the narrative culminating in a heightened reality that is rare in American thrillers.
But this is more than just a thriller. Even though there is plenty of action, and Lumet handles it without cheap sensationalism, he raises the film above the level of melodrama. It becomes tragedy as each character realises what has happened, and the relationship between them becomes more and more strained. And the revenge taken doesn’t have a cathartic effect on either the perpetrator or the viewer. It not only shocks, but disturbs for the effect it will have on the former later on, when he reflects on the whole of the nasty business, will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Shooting took place in and around New York, and cinematographer Ron Fortunato, using subdued colour with a grainy appearance, and avoiding those usual well known, over photographed glamorous places, adds immensely to the look and feel of the film.
This is a quiet, respectable, lower middle to working class neighborhood. Those involved are average, everyday citizens with problems - problems which unfortunately are growing – problems which require an urgent solution.
At the core of this fine film is the script. Written by Kelly Masterson (and possibly with suggestions and slight changes by the director) it, too, is a fine achievement. Masterson displays a feeling for characters and situations. They are real. The dialogue used is natural. It flows back and forth without any fancy literary pretensions, yet it taps into the psyche and thus reveals much. This is the foundation upon which director, actors, cinematographer have all contributed to produce something in cinema that is out of the ordinary and long over due.