Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

What’s the Story?

In BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, greedy Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) convinces his younger, more earnest, and less clever brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) to carry out a robbery at their parents' jewelry store. The crime is meant to be victimless, but it goes very badly, leaving a masked accomplice dead, Andy and Hank's mother Nanette (Rosemary Harris) in a coma, and Hank in a complete panic. The rest of the film provides sketchy, somewhat predictable context for each brother: While Andy fears losing his wife, Hank is desperately behind on child. At the same time, they must put on a show for their distraught father, Charles (Albert Finney), while their mother lies dying in the hospital. As each brother reveals his fears and disappointments, he also discovers that his life is too far gone to recover. Addicted to cocaine and heroin, Andy can't find a dark enough hole in which to disappear. And Hank, making one bad decision after another, discovers that he'll never be as rich -- or as miserable -- as his brother.

Is It Any Good?

At its best, Sidney Lumet's latest movie reflects this torment and rage in its complex structure and excellent performances; as the story cuts back and forth in time, viewers come to see motives and consequences gradually, piecing characters together as they come to understand themselves. But at its worst, the movie lapses into melodramatic formula, with men clashing and competing while women suffer.

Though the brothers' gnarly relationship creates a compelling puzzle, the women around them tend to fall by the wayside, serving more as evidence of the men's failures than as characters with their own lives -- or deaths. Even Nanette's passing becomes an occasion for the boys to argue and flail about. As reckless and forlorn as the brothers and their father may be, you can only imagine how much worse it is for the women who live with them.