FILMENATOR - My Candid Take on Movies from Around the Globe

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BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD

November 4th 2008 13:23

What saves Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead from being a very very ordinary film are the performances of Philip Seymour Hoffman as the bullying bigshot Andy Hansen and Ethan Hawke as his impressionable younger brother, Hank. * Both brothers have money worries and Andy conceives a plot to rob their parents’ suburban jewellery store. It all goes horribly wrong and while Hank becomes frantic, Andy grows both more ruthless and less self-assured as the constructions of his life begin to dissolve. Or should that be shatter? * The cracking glass metaphor, that is used a number of times in this film to underscore the shattering lives of the characters, adds no depth to a simple but well-constructed plot. Same with the repeating of scenes from the other perspective. This device, which has interesting possibilities, seems no more than a contrivance when a direct structure with a few twists is perfectly adequate. * In one scene we see Gina, Andy’s wife, looking out of the kitchen window into the garden, where Andy and his father Charles have just gone. Later we see Gina through this window, as background, while Charles and Andy sit talking. Each one apologizes for not meeting the others’ expectations, yet the scene is unmoving. Partly, this is because the dialogue is not quite convincing but mostly it is due to the performance of Albert Finney who plays Charles. He lumbers through his part like an old ham, desperately trying to squeeze out emotion. * And Marisa Tomei as Gina gives real meaning to the word ‘inarticulate’. Her character, self-centred but not lacking in feeling, should surely have had more expression than a series of monosyllabic grunts. The tone for her presence in the film barely moves beyond the opening sex-scene which has her pouting and sulking. Amy Ryan, as Hank’s ex-wife, gets the role of the ‘bitch’. * Ethan Hawke does a very good job as the intimidated Hank who ultimately reveals a moral core; Philip Seymour Hoffman gives an exceptional portrayal of a blustering persona devoid of substance and we are shown, with no attempt at subtlety, the family dynamics that have contributed to these personalities. Pity that the actors didn’t have more to work with.

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