Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

7.3

Plot: Andy and Hank Hanson are the oldest and youngest of three New York City based siblings, Andy the smart but ruthless one, Hank the good looking but weak minded one. Because of issues in their marriage, Andy's wife, Gina Hanson, has been having a clandestine casual affair with divorced Hank, who in turn believes he is in love with her. Andy, who pulls in six figures as the finance manager at a real estate office, is nonetheless facing financial problems of his own making, his white collar criminal activity to pay off his debts which is on the verge of being discovered which would ruin him completely. To get out of his bind, Andy is able to convince an initially reluctant Hank, who is facing his own more open financial problems in being behind in child support payments, to commit what Andy calls a victimless crime: hold-up their parents Charles and Nanette Hanson's small Westchester jewelry store as they know not only the routine and key information having worked there themselves, but that their parents would not lose anything in being covered by insurance, and no violence would be required as the hold-up would occur when the Hansons' elderly employee Doris alone would just be opening the store. Andy is further able to convince Hank to carry out the actual robbery. The result of the robbery not only affects the brothers' financial problems, but, in combination with the existing family dynamic especially with Charles, family interrelationships and individual family member lives in their entirety as things start to spiral out of control from the pressure.

Alternative Plot: Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a debt-ridden broker, needs some quick cash. He ropes his younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), into a scheme to commit the perfect crime: to rob their parents' (Albert Finney, Rosemary Harris) jewelry store. The scheme goes horribly awry, and the family patriarch takes justice into his own hands, unaware that the criminals he is hunting are his own sons.

Rate this movie!

Rated

Movie review by visitors

Have you seen this movie; Write a review
To be able to rate the movie, your review must exceed 350 characters