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"BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS
YOU'RE DEAD" (R)
Philip Seymour
Hoffman and Ethan Hawke shine in Lumet's latest...
By Clayton Davis
Veteran and iconic director Sidney Lumet
brings the electrifying Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. This may be
one of the best, if not the best film of the year. With a star-studded
cast who turn in some of the finest performances of the year and their
careers, its hard to resist the darkness of the picture. With the
Requiem for a Dream meets Closer persona, the film tells the story of
Andy and Hank, two brothers who come up with a perfect plan to solve all
their financial problems; they will rob their parents jewelry store. All
seems well when the plan goes sour which domino-effects a chain of
events that will change their lives forever.
Lumet directs Philip Seymour Hoffman in
his best portrayal in years, definitely topping his award winner Capote.
Hoffman plays the hard-nosed Andy, as powerfully disturbing as he is
irritating, Hoffman layers Andy emotion on top of emotion never giving
the viewer any indication of what he may be feeling next. The character,
while well written. doesn’t embody any type of redeeming factor to make
the audience like him at all. His character might be one of the
paramount written character studies of the new millennium.
Ethan Hawke in his most daring and
striking turn of his career plays Hank, the easily manipulated loser who
is easily influenced by his overbearing brother Andy. Hawke has never
been more aware, more internalizing, more invigorating in all his years
on screen. Hank is your tragedy of the story, a character destined to
fail and drowning in his endeavors, or lack there of. This is the
performance that is in dyer need of awards consideration as Hawke proves
that he can be a leading man, even though his performance is clearly
supporting. (as is the entire cast)
Albert Finney as the tough and nearly
unsentimental father Charles breathes new life into his
characterizations that we have never seen from the veteran actor before.
As loving and caring as Charles may appear, his feelings for life
especially his children run skin deep but with Finney at the helm and
bleeding out of the screen with frightening poise, that latter part of
the film becomes his show. Along with Hawke, an awards-caliber piece
that is worthy of citation.
Marisa Tomei, in a role which on the
surface seems underdeveloped and unneeded brings forth a brilliant
performance that tops her work in In the Bedroom. It’s her one-liners
and long stares out a car window that fish hook us into her world.
Besides her words and expressions being so endearing, we haven’t seen
her more sexy, more ballsy, more unlike Marisa which we have come to
know in her later years of acting in Unhook the Stars and What Women
Want.
Aleksa Balladino, Michael Shannon,
Rosemary Harris and the incomparable Amy Ryan turn in limited but
special performances respectively. All adding to what could be a serious
threat come SAG awards time for Best Performance by a Cast Ensemble
nomination. But I’m afraid in the end it’s Kelly Masterson’s brilliant,
which is an understatement, miraculous screenplay that makes the film
work so well. How can this concept be thought of which on paper seems so
ordinary but in the end be so original and provocative?
You get the legend Sidney Lumet to direct
your picture. In his later years, Lumet hasn’t stood out (at least in my
humble opinion) in his films as he did in his earlier years. With
classics like Dog Day Afternoon and The Wiz, Lumet revolutionized
filmmaking and make it more artistic and scenic. I only hope his work
here can not go unnoticed because it is a return to form for him indeed.
Consequently, Before the Devil Knows
You’re Dead excels and the most inventive levels. As the characters all
inhabit something grotesque and grating about them, the radiance and
grandeur of the eccentric type illuminates the screen and sends chills
down the viewer’s body; creating fury and lack of comfort that follows
you home until landing of the cranium on a soft light spread cushion.
****/**** |
