Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Review

I’d been meaning to see this film for while, having read some flattering reviews about it. I was disappointed. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is an accomplished film with good performances and a solid script but it lacked that extra spark to make it memorable.

The first third works well with its time-hopping structure, telling the story of the robbery (central to the subsequent events) through the point of view of four different characters. In this way the audience is actively involved in the film, having to incrementally piece together the information in order to fully comprehend the tragedy which has already unfolded. This structure is effective in presenting the idea of fate, where a character’s destiny is predetermined and the audience has been granted a portal to the future. What the film does well is present chains of cause and effect, where a meeting or conversation will have a consequence later in the sequence of events. The problem is it often flags important objects and conversations too obviously and there were very few surprises in this film for me. Some of the twists could be seen coming a mile off.

Changing the chronology of events is not a new device and it’s been done better before (for example Tarantino’s revolutionary Pulp Fiction and Alejandro Gonzalez mortally depressing 21 Grams or the better Amores Perros).

Once the initiating event is explained, the film loses momentum. The middle section of the film descends into family drama, which is rather uninteresting and filled with issues which is typical fodder in film these days (the oldest brother feeling unloved and underappreciated by his father, the wife sleeping with her husband’s more attractive brother, the divorced dad struggling to give his young daughter all that she is desires). The tension is variable throughout the film and is finally cranked up towards the end but drops off again as the film goes too far in needless violence showing the true nastiness of the characters. We already know they’re nasty – they planned to rob their own parents’ store!

The major problem is the Andy Hanson (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) character. He shows no true human feelings anywhere in the film and remains an inaccessible character towards the end. Even his reaction to his wife’s departure is calculated, as he methodically pushes things off tables, never in a true rage and never actually breaking anything. Since this character lacks any shred of sympathy, I couldn’t care less what happened to him. In fact none of the characters develop throughout the film and continue their, by now, predictable behaviour. So by the ‘shocking’ finale you just feel like you are watching events unfold to their inevitable conclusion.

They had better hope they get to heaven before the devil finds out because this whole family lacks redemption!
Three and half stars – Above average but nasty at the heart