Before the Devil knows you're dead (4½ Stars)

It's been over two weeks since I watched any films. I've been catching up on some of my favorite television series on DVD. Sure, they were good. I've been watching high quality television like "Dexter", "Star Trek" and "La Femme Nikita". And yet there's nothing quite like a film. There's a big difference between the rambling character development of a television series and the self-contained unit of a film. Both have their qualities. I enjoy both, depending on my mood. And today I watched a great film.

It's the first time I've watched "Before the Devil knows you're dead". The film was made in 2007, but I only heard about it recently, when a friend strongly recommended it to me. I wasn't disappointed. Well, I admit that the first 15 minutes confused me. It starts with a couple having sex on their wedding night. Then it jumps to a robbery a few years later. From there on the scenes jump backwards and forwards through time, but by then I had figured out what's happening.

My biggest complaint about the film is the seemingly random title. It's the second half of an old Irish blessing, "May you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead". This is what's shown in the film. Andy is shown having a moment of pure bliss on his wedding night in Brazil. From that time on he drops deeper and deeper into suffering. All the while he dreams of returning to Brazil, but as he progresses his dreams become less and less possible.

Andy is a successful businessman, the head of the finance department of a big company. His younger brother Hank works for the same company doing maintenance work. Although it's not stated we can assume that Andy has used his influence to get his failure of a brother a job. He deeply cares for his baby brother. But Andy has problems. He's become a drug addict, and he's stealing company funds to pay for his habit. Although he loves his wife their sex life has become dull, and he thinks he can solve all his problems by going back to live in Brazil. And so he devises the perfect crime. He plans to rob the small jewellery store owned by his parents. He expects no trouble, but his mother is shot to death. From this point his life spirals downhill.

This was the last film made by director Sidney Lumet before his death. I confess that I'd never heard of him, and I was surprised to hear in the interviews that cast and crew members were calling him "the best director who has ever lived". Just an opinion, of course, but this film is certainly a masterpiece. Lumet insists (in the interviews included on the DVD) that the film isn't a thriller, it's a melodrama. For the leading roles he picked actors who have experience of performing in theatres. He was aiming for the atmosphere of a play. There was a lengthy period of rehearsals in which he allowed the actors to bring their own feelings and emotions into the story. Rather than making requirements of them he asked them to "act naturally", as they really would if they lived through the events of the film. After this the filming was done in a relatively short period, as if it were a live theatre performance. The results are impressive. And I understand Lumet's point. The film isn't a thriller. It focuses on the emotions and interpersonal relationships of the family. It's a character study with depths that make it necessary to watch the film again and again.

Click here to view the trailer.