Sidney Lumet's most recent picture, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead opens up with Marissa Tomei and P.S.H. having sex...probably the most promising opening of any film...ever. It then leads into the quote ''May you spend at least a half an hour in heaven before the devil knows that you're dead.'' The film goes downhill from here, besides tour de force performances from PSH and Albert Finney (who deserved an Oscar nomination). The script is very lame and predictable, the motives are completely illogical, there are plenty of plot holes, during the flashbacks, the character says one thing during the first version of a scene and a different line in the second version (Memento did it right, Lumet failed). It has potential to be a good film, but it tries to be as dark as Se7en with..well..a funny (not comical) script. It seems like during every dramatic moment, you're waiting for Borat to pop out from somewhere or for Nicholson to bust down a door with an ax. I started laughing at some scenes that were obviously designed to be dramatic. Also, the editing is pathetic...its really repetitive and obnoxious. Although the acting was very good, if you have crappy direction and a bad script...the film isn't going to be very good. That said, I would recommend that you see the movie, just for Finney's incendiary performance.
Review of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
