Shout at the Devil
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The title printed on the ticket stub is only half the tale: “May you be in heaven half an hour,” the title card says, “before the devil knows you’re dead.” And my, how the gods have it in for Andy. Played with a blistering intensity by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who rips a thousand different shades into his character’s deceptive, calculated monotone, Andy is the driving force of this desperate story, the one who finally becomes fed up with eking through his life and who decides that he needs more. Everywhere Andy turns, the spoils of a happy life are mocking. Sidney Lumet’s new film, which opens today following a successful run at this month’s New York Film Festival, prefaces its visions of hell with a momentary stop in heaven: a prologue consisting of a lusty sex scene, with Andy and his wife (Marisa Tomei) reaching for the heavens as they vacation in South America. Andy giggles, asking how this can be happening: “We’re supposed to be an old married couple,” he says. Yet this is the only hint of sex Andy will enjoy throughout the film, the only happy moment of this marriage on display, and the only time we will see Andy smile, outside of the spinster’s sneer he dons as he sells his brother on taking part in an unfathomable crime.
But we mustn’t dive too deep into this murky puddle of a potboiler without first calling attention to the intricate shape, and shading, imparted by Mr. Lumet. He begins the story at the precise moment of the movie’s central jewelry heist, as a masked, armed plunderer faces off against an elderly employee behind the counter, and three rapid gunshots prove life-changing for all involved. As Mr. Lumet jumps back and forth in time, from a few days before the heist to a few days after, from Andy’s perspective, and then from that of Hank (Ethan Hawke), we start to recognize the truly shocking nature of the crime, and the way best-laid plans give way to worst possible scenarios.
In the aftermath, we come to see the intent more clearly: Andy is desperate to afford the refined life he has been faking all these years — the suits he wears, the condo he owns, the drugs he does — and Hank is drowning in a sea of alimony payments and bills. They both need cash, and Andy, who has recently dumped cocaine for heroin and pilfers his company’s petty cash fund, has devised a foolproof plan that addresses not only a load of financial debt, but also some emotional debt going back to the brothers’ parents and their childhood.
Looping in his outwardly desperate baby brother, Andy lays out the target: Mom and dad’s jewelry store in Westchester. Not just Mr. Lumet’s best work in some time, but one of this year’s most intricate and satisfying pop entertainments, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is more a first-rate character study than a straightforward thriller.
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