ChrisThilk Blog

The family depicted in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is certainly not one that you would want to spend any time with. One brother is sleeping with the other one’s wife. The second one is snorting coke and planning a robbery of their parents’ jewelry store in order to get what he feels will be some easy cash for the both of them.

But the movie is certainly worth spending time viewing. Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman and the rest of the cast are out there on a limb, all of them, in their performances. It’s like watching some sort of experimental theater production filled with risk-taking performances. All of those are directed with ease by veteran director Sidney Lumet in his last screen effort. It’s a worthy snapshot of his incredible career.