Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke star as brothers playing a dangerous game in Sidney Lumet thriller
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD (Sidney Lumet, 2007)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, October 1, $12, 2:30
Series continues through October 2
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
Sidney Lumet spins an intriguing web of mystery and severe family dysfunction in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) are very different brothers who are both in desperate financial straits. Andy, a real estate exec, has a serious drug problem and a fading marriage to his sexy but bored young wife (Marisa Tomei), while ne’er-do-well Hank can’t afford the monthly child-support payments to his ex-wife (Aleksa Palladino) and daughter (Amy Ryan). Andy convinces Hank to knock off their parents’ (Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris) jewelry store, but when things go horribly wrong, everyone involved is forced to face some very difficult situations, leading to a harrowing climax. Seymour and Hawke are both excellent, the former cool, calm, and collected, the latter scattershot and impulsive. Tomei gives one of her finest performances as the woman sleeping with both brothers. Lumet tells the story through a series of flashbacks from various characters’ point of view, with fascinating overlaps — although a bit overused — that offer different perspectives on critical scenes. Hoffman chose the role of Andy over Hank, which leads to several surprises, including an opening scene you will never forget. Adapted from a script by playwright Kelly Masterson — whom Lumet had never met or even spoken with — Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (the title comes from an Irish toast that begins, “May you be in heaven half and hour…”) is a thrilling modern noir from one of the masters of melodrama. The underrated film is screening on October 1 at 2:30 in the Museum of the Moving Image series “Philip Seymour Hoffman: The Master,” a sixteen-film tribute to Hoffman, a native New Yorker who left us well before his time. The series continues through October 2 with such other Hoffman films as Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Anton Corbjin’s A Most Wanted Man.