Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead is the latest masterpiece by famed director Sidney Lumet, the man behind such classics as Network, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon. With this, his newest film, he delves into the lives of a pair of brothers who are both down on their luck and desperate to do anything to get their lives straightened out again. In their desperation, they hatch a plan that seems foolproof at the time, but soon disintegrates into disaster, sweeping up everyone in its path.

It’s a dark, intense movie, but one with a singular focus on its characters. With blockbuster performances by Ethan Hawke and Phillip Seymour Hoffman and an incredibly tight script by Kelly Masterson, it’s a movie that’ll have you on the edge of your seat for its entire two hour running time. There are no easy answers here; no clear good guys and bad guys. It’s just complicated characters struggling to get out of messes that they made. And it’s a hell of a movie.

This entry was posted by Adam on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am