Getting away with sins

by RICHARD JONES

YOU would have to be really desperate to stage an armed, early morning stick-up at your parents' jewellery store, wouldn't you ?

Well, that's what financially strapped brothers Andy (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) plan in order to snare some cash to fuel their lifestyles and, indeed, their drug habits.

In Sidney Lumet's terrifically taut thriller Before The Devil Knows You're Dead the robbery is bungled, the brothers snare no cash and there's a couple of dead bodies at the jewellery store.

Lumet uses the flashback to telling effect. The scene in accountant Andy's real estate office where the robbery is first hatched is revisited, in hindsight, and we know in the return scene what has unfolded as more and more information is revealed.

The robbery is just the start of a chain of events which will crush an entire family. The father of the two brothers, played by a crusty Albert Finney, turns to amateur private eye as he attempts to garner some concrete evidence from his suspicions.

And Andy's wife Gina (Marisa Tomei) has some secrets of her own which will further crush a shattered Andy later in the film.

Oh, and in case you're wondering where the film's title comes from an old Irish saying has it: 'May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead'.

Does this mean: 'May you get away with your sins' ? You be the judge.

2 June 2008

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