Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.

I'll jump into the conversation about this one a little later today or this weekend, but I've definitely got my own thoughts on this film, as well as an impending interview with the film's producer...

Hey everyone. Capone in the Windy City here.

Sidney Lumet's latest bit of genius opens with a naked Philip Seymour Hoffman giving it hard from behind to an even more naked (if that's possible) Marisa Tomei. And the film just gets better from there in a series of events that proves to us that there is more than one way to seriously fuck someone. Lumet likes to play in the dark, and things don't get much more pitch black that in BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, an evil little movie about two brothers, Andy and Hank (Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) who really don't like each other but have a common desperate need for quick, easy, tax-free cash. Clearly the more successful and mature of the two, Andy hatches a plan to rob a mom-and-pop jewelry store in a suburban shopping mall. Hank gets on board until Andy reveals that the store in question is the one owned by their own parents (Rosemary Harris and Albert Finney). Hank is such a pushover that even that aspect of the crime seems easy to look past after a while.

Needless to say the job goes horribly wrong in beautiful ways I won't allow myself to go into and we spend the rest of the film watching everybody's already miserable lives spin hopelessly out of control. I'm making the film sound much more linear than it actually is. Lumet and first-time screenwriter Kelly Masterson reveal these events piece by piece, beginning with the robbery and then working backwards and forwards from the launch pad. Sometimes we see the same event two or three times but from different points of view and with more resonance each time the moment is relived. Lumet (12 ANGRY MEN, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, NETOWRK, SERPICO, FAIL-SAFE, THE VERDICT) has always been one of the greatest directors of crime dramas ever, and with BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, he shows us that the scale of the crime doesn't have much to do with the suspense that can be generated by it. I don't think I've ever seen Ethan Hawke plays such a squirrelly, uncertain character before. Conversely, Hoffman is one cocky SOB here, and it's a huge part of Andy's downfall. As I may have mentioned before, Tomei seems to struggle here…not with her acting, but with keeping her clothes on. She also cheats on her husband with Hank, and her sex appeal has never been more on display and authentic than it is here.

It's been a while since Lumet has seemed this on top of his game, and I say that being a big fan of his last film FIND ME GUILTY. I'm not sure the story structure needs to be quite so complicated, but it sure does make it more fun and more downright nasty. This is a movie you're going to think and talk about long after you see it, not because it's confusing, but because it's so damn smart and strong. I can't wait to see what Lumet has for us next; I hear he's got an original screenplay in store for us. Oh joy!

Capone