Mailbag Round-Up: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

May 22, 2008- Permalink

Reaching into the mailbag this week, we find Sidney Lumet’s Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. It’s a given in the movies that the easier a heist appears, the greater the chance that something will go very wrong.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers whose parents own a jewelery store. Hoffman is the more successful brother. He’s got a job as a payroll executive, a sexy wife (Marisa Tomei), and a drug habit that needs cash to fuel it. Hawke is financially struggling, needs money for his little girl, and he’s sleeping with his sister-in-law.

Knowing that their parents, Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris, have their store fully insured, the two brothers figure they can stage a robbery. They’ll have the cash they both need and nobody gets hurt. Or so they plan…

Hoffman is, of course, fantastic. He truly is the embodiment of the actor you’d pay to watch read the phone book. But with him, you’d come back the second night to see him read the Yellow Pages™. Albert Finney matches Hoffman toe-to-toe as the pair’s father. With this duo in the cast it’s hard for the rest not to be partially in their shadows, but that’s not a slight considering the scale of performances we’re talking about here.

This DVD release includes interviews with the cast and director as well as commentary from Hoffman, Hawke and Lumet. Considering Lumet’s a filmmaking legend, that’s worth the price of admission alone.

While you’re at it, check out our photos from the Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead premiere at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.