Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Recommended

USA/UK

Feature Film
Director: Sidney Lumet
Writer: Kelly Masterson
Cinematographer: Ron Fortunato
Composer: Carter Burwell
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Aleksa Palladino, Michael Shannon, Brian F. O'Byrne

A rather annoying stylistic choice aside, this bleak thriller from the 83-year-old Lumet, a depiction of the tragic consequences of two brothers’ decision to rob their own parents’ jewellery store, is an unsurprisingly well acted film that manages, with its zig-zagging, overlapping structure, to slowly paint a devastating portrait of fear, desperation, guilt, betrayal, grief, and retribution. Iain.Stott