(Thanks, THINKFilmNY!) 
The late, great director Sidney Lumet’s final motion picture, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead is a brilliantly made film that hits harder today thanks to the death (allegedly by heroin overdose) of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. While the film got a somewhat limited theatrical release in North America and was completely ignored at the Academy Awards, it’s a mesmerizing, must-see crime drama that shouldn’t be missed. Its non-linear structure and use of flashback scenes presented from different characters’ perspectives adds a layer of tension to an already compelling story and every single actor here more than earns their keep, perfectly playing their roles.

If you’ve never seen this before, I’ll not reveal very much of the story, as the film rolls it out for you from a few angles and watching these characters roll fate’s dice and lose to varying degrees makes the movie. Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers desperate for money for assorted reasons. An armed theft planned by one brother goes wrong in the worst possible manner and the consequences spiral out of the control of just about everyone affected by it. Just when you think things are bad enough, they manage to get worse and those awful ripples reach pretty far before heading back to their source…

As the film replays events leading up to the crime and its aftermath, we meet the other players and see how everything fits together before it all goes to hell. Hoffman’s character is married to Marisa Tomei, Hawke’s is divorced from Amy Ryan (they have a young daughter), the two brothers’ father and mother are played by the outstanding Albert Finney and Rosemary Harris respectively and there are a bunch of other characters each with small, important roles. The film plays with you as it goes back and forward in time, pretty much wanting you to choose a favorite brother as it’s showing you they’re both flawed men with their own problems that collide as new surprises are revealed.

Of the two, Hoffman’s character is the most damaged, a habitual heroin user and embezzler about to be caught by an audit he should have seen coming. He’s also none to bright, but thinks he is because he can bend his brother to his will with anger and humiliation. Hawke’s non-hero is even a pushover to his wife, who just wants him to pay his fair share in child support and other costs for their daughter. Kelly Masterson’s masterful script holds everything together as all the pieces shift around and more characters come into the plot because of those aforementioned ripples. There are a few deaths before all is said and done and each one is jarring because you don’t see it coming until it happens or it’s not who you think getting taken out of the picture.

The film moves along at a rapid clip, there’s little to no humor to be found at all and like Lumet’s best films, you’re hooked into this one as soon as you’ve fired it up. For me, this one felt like one of those great 1970’s films where you saw actors give their all and become superstars based on a single scene. Of course, all the principals here were veterans (some with Oscars on a shelf somewhere), so you’re getting what amounts to an All-Star team swinging for the fences and knocking everything out of the park. There’s pretty much nothing else to say other than see this as soon as possible as a dual remembrance for two very talented men, one who’s left us far too early and the other who went out with a fantastic final film.