Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - 2007 film review

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was the last film directed by Sidney Lumet, but there's absolutely no sense of lack of energy about a movie that's unpredictable and gripping from start to finish. It's a thriller about a robbery, but that description does the film scant justice. This is at heart a character-driven movie, benefiting from fine acting and a tricky storytelling structure that works very well indeed.

I'm cautious about saying too much about the story, because of the risk of spoilers - especially since information is doled out in pieces, as events are recounted in a non-chronological way, and from more than one viewpoint. But the heart of the story is that two brothers, Andy and Frank Hanson, are in serious financial trouble. Andy is the dominant sibling and he persuades Frank to embark on what he optimistically describes as a 'victimless crime' - in fact, this is a story with all too many victims.

Andy is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who gives what must surely have been one of his finest performances. Andy (whose wife is played, again very well, by Marisa Tomei) is a monster, yet because of Hoffman's sensitivity to nuances of character, we can't help feeling at least a touch of pity, if not perhaps empathy. We also gain some understanding of why he behaves the way he does. There's a genuine sadness about Andy's drug habit, because Hoffman himself died far too young as a result of an overdose of drugs.

Frank is played by Ethan Hawke, another terrific actor, and we do have more sympathy for him - despite his gullibility and selfishness, his weaknesses are more forgivable than Andy's. And then there is Albert Finney, who gives a very strong performance as their father. Again, I don't want to say too much about the part he plays in the story, but in the second half of the film it is crucial. Strange to think that decades earlier he was Hercule Poirot in a certain train-based film directed by....Sidney Lumet. The two roles could hardly be more different. But Finney was more than equal to the challenge. This is a terrific movie.