Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007) 7/10
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a tale about a jewellery heist gone wrong. Its like watching a car crash in slow motion; the film is set out in a way that its only a matter of time before it ALL GOES TO HELL. Yet despite the cliched confines of the genre, director Sidney Lumet shows that, at 83 years, he still has what it takes to craft a compelling morality tale about man’s propensity to screw up. The film is virtually a cinematic example of Murphy’s Law- How everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
At the center of this film is Philip Seymour Hoffman, who does overact at times but puts in one of the most compelling and morally murky performances of the year. However what did bring this film down a notch was the use of flashbacks and intercutting between the point of view of the three main characters that was more showy than necessary. It could have worked as a straight-forward linear plot and the intercutting between timelines did not really add much to the story. But the biggest problem was the decision to set up the heist in the very first scene before moving on to flashback, which robs the film of potential tension by setting the climatic scene in the opening.
Still, the film is a riveting experience that explores the psyche of its character and a cautionary tale of how making one wrong turn could lead you down the slippery slope of darkness. Greed is the catalyst that propels our characters who are inherently good people, and fate toys with them as this greek tragedy plays out.
“There’s no larger message other than that greed gives us something to hold on to even as it kills us.”- Boston Globe
