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The movie's title comes from the Irish toast, 'May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead.' Unfortunately, everyone in the film is running about 35 minutes late.
As the Shadow used to say, the weed of crime bears bitter fruit, and Lumet has made a delicious pie out of it.
You feel Before the Devil Knows You're Dead more than you watch it. And the feeling is far from warm and fuzzy.
At a time when family movies are usurped by fantasies of sentimental feelgood, Lumet's latest -- the mangled-heist melodrama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead -- delivers a swift kick straight to the jewels.
The problem is not that the director is working but that his latest film is working too hard. Way too hard â" this thing is melodrama running a marathon.
The family dynamics are skillfully rendered, the suspense is bruising and each man's performance is a revelation.
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is an immensely disturbing and tragic morality tale, which focuses on the consequences and repercussions of a sinister act driven by greed.
Suspense and action would be enough to seal this film, but the feeling of dread, that under different circumstances this could be us, makes this a heist picture for the ages.
Lumet proves he's still a master storyteller, and Philip Seymour Hoffman is fantastic.
No matter how irredeemable and pathetic the behavior of their characters might be, Hoffman and Hawke evoke a squirming recognition and empathy.
Lumet is still one of the best directors in the business.
Lumet's latest film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is an unpleasant film with unpleasant characters. It would be easy to dismiss, if it weren't directed by maestro Sidney Lumet. But the movie is labored and repetitive.
Sometimes it feels like too much, but then again, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is an exercise in piling it on, with each plot twist all but guaranteeing the absolute damnation of its struggling characters,
My biggest problem with this movie is that underneath all the style and film tricks, I really didn't like or care what happened to any of these characters.
This is one of the most gut-wrenching thrillers in recent memory, and it features a real sucker-punch ending.
Si William Shakespeare viviera y fuera guionista, el resultado podría ser algo bastante parecido a esto.
this somber reflection on crime is as much a breath of fresh air as any premier feature at a film festival.
What a quirky pair of brothers do Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke make.
Mature heist film full of violence, explicit sex.
Traz o peso de tragédia grega que Woody Allen buscou com sucesso apenas moderado em O Sonho de Cassandra.
Director Sidney Lumet digs deep into the tawdry souls, peeling back the layers of arrogance and anger and self-delusion until all that's left is fury and fear and hate.
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