The Best Movie You Never Saw: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

 

Welcome to The Best Movie You NEVER Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time and/or has aged like a fine wine.

This week we’ll be looking at BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD!

THE STORY: Two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman & Ethan Hawke) desperately in need of cash hatch a plan to rob a jewelry store owned by their parents (Albert Finney & Rosemary Harris).

THE PLAYERS: Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney, Michael Shannon. Directed by Sidney Lumet.

THE HISTORY: Sidney Lumet was eighty-two in 2007, but as far as directing went, he was in no mood to slow down. As prolific as ever, he was coming off the underrated mob comedy-drama FIND ME GUILTY (starring Vin Diesel in an atypical character part) and sought to return to grittier territory by signing on to turn writer Kelly Masterson’s script for BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD into a feature. Working with a tight budget ($18 million – remarkably small for 2007 – HUGE for 2020 oddly enough), Lumet was nonetheless able to entice one hell of a cast to sign on, including the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was fresh off winning an Oscar for CAPOTE. In fact, all four leads were at least Oscar nominees, including Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney.

Sure enough, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD earned Lumet his best reviews in years, with many ranking it as his best film since 1988’s RUNNING ON EMPTY, while others (including myself – with it being one of the first JoBlo.com reviews I ever wrote) said it was his best since 1982’s THE VERDICT. While not a hit (it grossed just over $7 million domestically), it nonetheless got good notices and probably broke even when foreign box office was accounted for. Puzzlingly, it was all but ignored by the academy, despite showing up on most prestigious critics 10 best of the year list.

WHY IT’S GREAT: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD is a film that’s ripe for rediscovery. A tight, morally complicated thriller that trades in shades of grey, it’s dazzlingly suspenseful at times despite the fact that the two leads (Hoffman and Hawke) are as reprehensible as you can get. That Lumet is able to make us sympathetic for two guys who decide to rob their parents' jewelry store, getting their own mother killed in the process, is remarkable. They’re both scumbags, with Hoffman arguably the worse of the two, with him needing the cash to flee the country because his work’s about to discover he’s been siphoning off hundreds of thousands to feed his hardcore heroin habit. Hawke, by contrast, is merely stupid. Yet, in a weird way you kinda want to see them get away with it, even though you cheer when they get their comeuppance.

Lumet doesn’t dress the film up with a lot of flashy techniques. He’s an old pro and clearly knows that between the cast and the script he’s got the goods. He lets his performers dominate, with Hoffman downright terrifying in the third act as he tries to claw his way out of trouble. The only issue is that in hindsight it’s very eerie and tragic to see him playing a wealthy drug addict considering how he died. Truly, he was among the greatest actors of our time, and in interviews, Lumet pointed at his meltdown in the car as among the greatest bits of acting he ever directed – high praise from the man who directed Al Pacino in SERPICO and DOG DAY AFTERNOON, Peter Finch in NETWORK, and Paul Newman in THE VERDICT.

Hawke is similarly good, with him sinking further and further into despair and panic as the film goes on (I'm amazed at how sympathetic I was to him in my original review – I guess I'm much meaner now), while Marisa Tomei seems to relish playing Hoffman’s trophy wife, delivering a great performance in her own right. Last but not least is the late, great Albert Finney as their grief-striken dad, who was already semi-retired by this point, mostly sticking to small roles in movies like OCEAN’S 12 and THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, but digs into his leading role without missing a beat. I’m stunned he didn’t score a best supporting actor nomination all things considered.

BEST SCENE: Another person showcased to great effect in BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD is Michael Shannon, who only has two scenes, but damn near walks away with the movie in both of them. I love his first bit, where he clearly scares the piss out of Hawke’s character by adapting this affable tough-guy patter. It’s no wonder that after this he started to hit his stride.

 

SEE IT: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD just got a nice Blu-ray re-release, and in the U.S you can also stream it on HBO GO (or Max if you’re reading this after the launch). In Canada it’s available on Prime and Tubi TV. And, of course, you can buy it on iTunes, the Prime Store, etc.

PARTING SHOT: BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD made a big impact on me thirteen years ago, and I have to say, rewatching it recently I got just as big of a kick out of it (my girlfriend, who’d never seen it, was similarly riveted). It’s a gem well-worth discovering or re-discovering for that matter.