Sidney Lumet is one of those name directors who, when critics find his name associated with a film, tend to genuflect in reverence. As such, it's no great surprise to see the outpouring of praise given to Before The Devil Knows You're Dead (it scored an 88% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes), however viewing it left me feeling as empty as a Biafran famine victim.
With an impressive cast comprised of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei, coupled with Lumet's directorial prowess and a smart story by Kelly Masterson, one could be forgiven for thinking things would be a slam-dunk, but they aren't.
Telling the story of two brothers (Hoffman and Hawke), each with their own set of financial troubles, who opt to rob their parent's jewelry store only to have the heist go south on them, "Dead" strikes an ambitious if well-worn tack of jumping back in forth in time akin to the TV show Lost, showing the evolution, execution and aftermath of the crime from various stages and perspectives. There's much that's interesting and compelling here, except that at the end of the journey I found myself detached from the characters and thinking that more might have been accomplished if a more conventional sequencing of the narrative had been chosen, instead of the bouncing to the various characters points of view.
This isn't to say that there aren't some terrific performances going on here. Finney, in his 70th decade, is still a powerful screen presence, and Hoffman is an unquestionable talent portraying the heroin-addicted corporate financial wonk Charles Hanson to perfection. In fact, I can't find a single flaw with the performances in this picture. Even Tomei who, at age 43, has a body I would crawl a mile over broken glass for, and flaunts it in the raw copiously is compellingly believable as the torn mistress boinking both Hanson brothers (Hoffman and Hawke) and who is emotionally split between the two.
The problem is that for all the acting, directorial and cinematic firepower behind this movie, it never once sucked me in emotionally or believably. Many of the plot's twists are telegraphed and easily foreseen, right from the very beginning. With all the surprise removed from the journey, it becomes akin to little more than an exercise in watching a bunch of veterans from an acting studio go through their lines.
Such a waste.
With an impressive cast comprised of Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney and Marisa Tomei, coupled with Lumet's directorial prowess and a smart story by Kelly Masterson, one could be forgiven for thinking things would be a slam-dunk, but they aren't.
Telling the story of two brothers (Hoffman and Hawke), each with their own set of financial troubles, who opt to rob their parent's jewelry store only to have the heist go south on them, "Dead" strikes an ambitious if well-worn tack of jumping back in forth in time akin to the TV show Lost, showing the evolution, execution and aftermath of the crime from various stages and perspectives. There's much that's interesting and compelling here, except that at the end of the journey I found myself detached from the characters and thinking that more might have been accomplished if a more conventional sequencing of the narrative had been chosen, instead of the bouncing to the various characters points of view.
This isn't to say that there aren't some terrific performances going on here. Finney, in his 70th decade, is still a powerful screen presence, and Hoffman is an unquestionable talent portraying the heroin-addicted corporate financial wonk Charles Hanson to perfection. In fact, I can't find a single flaw with the performances in this picture. Even Tomei who, at age 43, has a body I would crawl a mile over broken glass for, and flaunts it in the raw copiously is compellingly believable as the torn mistress boinking both Hanson brothers (Hoffman and Hawke) and who is emotionally split between the two.
The problem is that for all the acting, directorial and cinematic firepower behind this movie, it never once sucked me in emotionally or believably. Many of the plot's twists are telegraphed and easily foreseen, right from the very beginning. With all the surprise removed from the journey, it becomes akin to little more than an exercise in watching a bunch of veterans from an acting studio go through their lines.
Such a waste.