Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke tear up some serious screen as brothers caught up in a crime gone wrong in "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." This is a damn good film from director Sidney Lumet, the towering, 80-year-old director of the classics "Network" and "Dog Day Afternoon." This isn't nearly as great as those touchstones, but few films are.
Hoffman is Andy, a higher-up accountant deep in debt and drugs and a bad marriage; Hawke is Hank, who's deep in misery, self-pity, a bad job and an ex-wife from hell. Andy pushes Hank into a robbery scheme to get $$$. The hitch: They'll rob their parents' jewelry store. Bad things happen.
Hoffman plows depths of pent-up anger, Hawke has never looked so wounded, and Albert Finney as the father is a god. The film has some sore spots, notably Andy's wife (Marisa Tomei), who's sleeping with Hank. It's an unneeded "man is this family wacky or what?!" subplot. Also, it never occurs to the brothers that police always look at family first in just about every crime? Ugh. Still, this is an actor's film, and on that level it doesn't disappoint. B
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