I have a great deal of respect for film critic Roger Ebert, so when he named the Sidney Lumet film Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead as one of 2007’s 10 best, I decided there and then that I would try to see it in theaters. I was further encouraged by the mostly positive reviews I read from other critics, as well as by the 7.9 rating that this title currently enjoys on IMDB.com.
But, as sometimes happens with highly rated films, I found myself in the minority after seeing this. I didn’t like this one at all, and really can’t understand what the fuss is all about.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Andy (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are two brothers trying to work their way through various problems.
On the surface, Andy looks like he has it together. He makes six figures at his job, has a beautiful wife named Gina (Marisa Tomei), and lives in an immaculate apartment. Hank, meanwhile, is several months behind on his child support, can’t afford the $137 it costs for his daughter to go on a class trip to The Lion King, and doesn’t seem to enjoy a very high standard of living.
However, as the movie unfolds, we see that the brothers have a lot more in common than they let on. For example, Andy is hurting for money just as much as Hank is (though we never learn why), and Hank is having an affair with Gina.
Then Andy comes up with a plan to solve the brothers’ money problems for the time being. All Hank has to do is rob a mom ‘n’ pop jewelry store, grab the approximately $600,000 in inventory, and then fence the jewels for 20 cents on the dollar, which will net each brother $60,000. This will be an easy job because both Hank and Andy know the store inside out — since their parents own it.
At first, Hank balks at the idea of robbing Mom and Dad, but Andy convinces him to do it. The jewels are insured, he reasons, so this will be a totally victimless crime. But Hank, who has a penchant for screwing things up, makes the mistake of getting his friend Bobby (Brian F. O’Byrne) involved. Bobby doesn’t realize who owns the store, and ends up in a gun fight with Hank’s mom.
The rest of the film then deals with fallout from the botched robbery attempt, as Andy and Hank scramble to cover their tracks and salvage their lives. Things spiral out of control quickly, however, more as a result of the brothers’ own paranoia than any real pressure from the police, until the episode ends in tragedy for one of them.
My Reaction: While watching this film, I was reminded of Fargo, the 1996 Coen brothers production. In both movies, the main character(s) are facing money problems and come up with a harebrained scheme to raise some cash. In both films, the “crimes” were supposed to be cleverly orchestrated against family members in such a way that no one actually got hurt. And in both films, the staged crimes go seriously wrong, leading to major problems for the protagonists.
But at least in Fargo, the William Macy character generated sympathy from the audience. Sure, he was a sad-sack loser, but we still got the feeling that he was a decent guy in general before the kidnapping went down.
Here in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, I didn’t like either brother at all. It didn’t help that the very first time we meet Andy was in a rather graphic sex scene. Ugh, I seriously could have done without seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman naked, thankyouverymuch. And Hank was hardly any better, with his constant stammering, indecision, and willingness to let his brother push him around.
Furthermore, I didn’t think the stakes were high enough for Andy and Hank to risk what they did. Andy specifically said that he makes six figures at his job. So why was he having money problems? Did his wife shop too much? Was his drug habit proving to be too much of a drain on his finances? The filmmakers didn’t bother telling us. We know Hank needed a couple thousand to pay off his back child support, but that wasn’t a pressing issue (his ex-wife wasn’t about to send a goon after him to collect or anything like that), and didn’t seem like enough of a motivating factor.
In Fargo, we knew that Jerry had been fudging numbers on car loans from GMAC, and pocketing the money himself. He was over $100,000 in the hole, and was about to get busted big-time. That was motivation that the audience could understand.
As a result of all these factors (and more), I couldn’t get into Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, and ended up not liking it one bit. I give the movie 5.0 stars out of 10, and don’t think it deserved a mention as one of the best films of the year.