Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Two brothers plan and rob their parents store and it triggers a series of unfortunate events.

Gripping drama with a dazzling back and forth action which sometimes captivates, sometimes bores, and then it captivates again and then again ... it bores. It culminates with a tense ending which makes you sit uncomfortably in your chair.
It's lead by a series of characters that you have to alternatively love, hate and condemn but you end up sympathizing with and pitying anyway. It succeeds in reaching out to the viewer through unsettling performances from all the actors involved. We get an immature and helpless Ethan Hawke, defeated by powerlessness and the cruel reality, a seemingly powerful and invincible Philip Seymour Hoffman, vicious but also full of regret, whose weakness is precisely the confidence and reliance of those around him in him and his self-control; Marisa Tomei is frustrated, childish and eager for adoration, attention and a good life; Albert Finney - memorable as usual -gives life to a character who can only generate endless controversy. Everything that happens, all that the characters live, decide and do is unforgivable but also somewhat excusable.

Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Albert Finney

This is a translation of an older post, see it here

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