Sidney Lumet’s (Guilty As Sin, Dog Day Afternoon) Before the Devil Knows Your Dead is a good-old-fashioned robbery gone wrong that involves older brother Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote, The Savages) and younger brother Hank (Sinister, Before Sunrise) fleecing the strip-mall jewelry store of their parents Charles (Albert Finney – Erin Brokovich, Tom Jones) and Nanette (Rosemary Harris – Spider-Man, Tom and Viv) on a day where neither parent was expected to be there.

This movie fluctuates in its time pattern, starting on the robbery day before going back in time a few days and in the future a few days over its course. Therefore, it will be a difficult film to review because of the many spoilers. So, instead, I will give my one-sentence review before going into the spoiler section. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a good movie with several twists you’ll see coming, but you can still appreciate the ride’s joy. The story is loose, and you’ll likely never lose track of what is happening, though you will diverge on the paths some. As for the ending, you might see a version of it coming, though you might not see precisely how it plays out.

***Spoilers***

According to folklore, there are thirty minutes in heaven after you die before the devil figures out you are dead. One of our first scenes in the movie is the jewelry store heist. It is played out several times during the film from a few different angles. Unfortunately, it never goes right through. Hank, unable to carry out the robbery as Andy has laid out, hires his friend Bobby to do the dirty work. The first of many blunders, which no one envisioned, is Nanette working the morning of the crime. It was not supposed to be Andy and Hank’s mother, but rather one of the assistants who would have known nothing and been too scared to do anything. Instead, it is Nanette who happens to know where the store’s gun is located and has a quick shootout that results in Bobby’s death.

Not knowing what to do, Hank, having a weekly affair with Andy’s trophy wife Gina (Marisa Tomei – My Cousin Vinny, The Wrestler), tries to cover them to keep them out of prison. Both had their reasons for needing a quick score. Hank is divorced and is in over his head with child support debt, while Andy, who has a bit of a cocaine habit, has embezzled two salaries worth of money from his company that just happens to be being audited that week. He needs to account for that cash quickly. It seems like the perfect plan. Rob, the assistant, and Ma and Pa’s shop, which they know is 100% insured, and no one will be the wiser.

Bobby’s wife sends her brother Dex (Michael Shannon – The Shape of Water, Take Shelter) to collect a cash settlement from Hank for Bobby’s death. And they have no money since Hank pulled away from the heist as soon as his mother killed Bobby (valuables in hand). Dex is a problem that has to be taken care of before he blabs to the authorities, and Hank and Andy’s father himself are responsible for the death of his wife; Andy and Hank rob Andy’s drug dealer.

If this all seems a bit ludicrous, it both is and isn’t. Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. is a good movie that is made even better due to the back-and-forth sequences, the different points of view between characters, and the overall grittiness. There is plenty of overacting by both Seymour Hoffman and Hawke. In a different movie, this might have been too over the top. But Before the Devil Knows Your Dead puts its foot on the gas pedal from the first scene and doesn’t let off until the grand finale. It knows exactly what it is, and it goes for it.

***End of Spoilers***

Plot 7.5/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 7/10
Screenplay 7.5/10
Directing 7.5/10
Cinematography 7.5/10
Sound 7.5/10
Hook and Reel 10/10
Universal Relevance 7.5/10
77%

B-

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