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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 10 January 2008

Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman, right) with brother Hank (Ethan Hawke)

Don’t touch the family jewels

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Certificate PG

ANOTHER indefatigable oldster in the director’s chair (he’s an amazing 83 years young) is Sidney Lumet, who gives us entertainment value in full with an unusual suspense yarn that proves yet again that crime doesn’t pay – especially if you try to keep it in the family.
It sounds like a good idea to New York real estate executive Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman, having a busy week) when he persuades his younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) to hold up the jewellery shop run by their parents (Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris).
“It’s perfect,” Andy assures his doubting brother. “They’re insured. Nobody gets hurt. Everybody wins.”
Fat chance. But they both need the money. Andy has been fiddling the books at his office, and the auditors are about to be called in, while Hank is in hock to a load of creditors and three months behind with child support payments to his shrewish wife (Marisa Tomei).
Of course it all goes disastrously wrong. Hank secretly hires a low-life thug to do the job for him, with tragic consequences when the mother is killed. In turn the gunman is shot dead, leaving the brothers open to blackmail from the killer’s girlfriend. Their world starts to disintegrate around their ears.
Lumet skilfully turns the screw, using flashbacks to thread the strands together and springing a fresh surprise around every corner.
It’s good to see our old friend Albert Finney back in top form, with a bravura performance as the distraught husband prepared to turn vigilante to track down the truth.
If there’s a moral here, it’s simple: don’t tinker with the family jewels.

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