"Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" is a neo noir thriller from the "old man" Sidney Lumet. I thought this flick was so good that I would probably use it as a reference when explaining to someone exactly what "neo noir" looks like. Every character in this movie is hanging by a thread, both emotionally, morally and financially. What's left is a pretty bleak picture of a dysfunctional and corrupt family in modern day New York.
Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) manipulates his loser younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) into robbing a jewelry store. Hank is in obvious dire financial straits, his own daughter calls him a "loser" taking a cue from Hank's nasty ex-wife (Amy Ryan). Andy, on the other hand, has gotten into trouble at work for being corrupt...He works for some type of mortgage/real estate company and is siphoning money from fired employees accounts among other shady dealings. Andy is the epitome of the smarmy guy at work, always scheming, always manipulating but never really succeeding at anything.
Another layer to this is Andy's relationship with his father played by Albert Finney. There is a natural strain and discomfort between the two that you see in so many real life father/son relationships. There is a scene where Finney's character reaches out to Andy, willing to offer him some fatherly compassion and Andy rejects it. Deep down, he hates his father...Hawke is great as the dim bulb brother who is in way over his head dealling with some real shady characters. He gives you the impression he just wants to give up as the world increasingly collapses around him.
The most interesting character in the film though is Gina (Marisa Tomei). I admit this may be because she is so damn attractive. She is seemingly ageless at 43 and totally fearless as an actress. She appears nude throughout the movie and it isn't the kind of nudity that is exploitative. She is willing to make herself naked to the camera, physically and emotionally. . The film has an overlapping structure a la Pulp Fiction, profiling each character's side of the story during the aftermath of the robbery. We never get her side of the story although she is central in some of the scenes. Gina is married to Andy but cheating on him with Hank. And she seems too intelligent to get mixed up with such repellent men which in my opinion makes her the most interesting character in the film. What the hell is she doing with these guys? But perhaps that is part of the noirish world Lumet is portraying here. Noir is about irony and the irony about people is that they don't always do what is in their best interest. "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead" takes that piece of psychology and extrapolates it into something that is definitely hopeless to everyone involved.
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