BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD
RYAN: Wow, wow, wow, this movie was so good. What’s the name of it again?
CAROLINE: “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” directed by the prolific Sydney Lumet. It’s his 45th film.
RYAN: He made one of my favorite movies of all time, the Diana Ross version of “The Wiz.”
CAROLINE: He also made “Dog Day Afternoon,” which I’ve meant to see my whole life and still haven’t.
RYAN: Before we begin, I have to say that I had not ever heard of Amy Ryan or seen her in anything until this week; now she’s in 3 great movies, “Gone Baby Gone,” “Dan in Real Life” and this one.
CAROLINE: Clearly, she’s having the best week ever. She doesn’t have a huge part in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” though. To me, this movie was owned by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who gives yet another Oscar-worthy performance.
RYAN: As does Marisa Tomei who, by the way, looks dangerously hot. For someone who’s older today than she’s ever been in her life, she looks sexier and better than ever.
CAROLINE: The woman has never looked so good. She is curvy in all the right places, and her hair looked fabulous. I’d like to speak to both her dermatologist and her trainer.
RYAN: She’s topless in several scenes, and I was like, “Holy cow!” I could almost go straight for her.
CAROLINE: That’ll be the day.
RYAN: Albert Finney is also fantastic as the dad.
CAROLINE: Ethan Hawke is good but so unattractive that he’s hard to look at. He’s not aging well, I’m sorry to say.
RYAN: I thought he overacted some scenes. He was a little over-the-top.
CAROLINE: Honestly, the less you know about this movie going in, the better. It’s about two brothers and a bank robbery, and I have never seen so many things go wrong in a movie since “Very Bad Things” and “Derailed,” two fun movies that don’t at all match the caliber of this film.
RYAN: Not even close. This film blows so many others out of the water. I especially loved this one editing technique they used that intercuts two scenes. It was unique and brilliant and I’d never seen it before.
CAROLINE: The movie flashes back and forth in time and gives you different people’s perspectives of the same scene, but it’s never confusing because they have little sub-titles telling you what day it is, which I very much appreciated.
RYAN: If this film isn’t nominated for Best Screenplay, I’m going to have to write a letter to the Academy. Bottom line?
CAROLINE: This movie is only open in limited release right now, and I hope it goes wide soon because people need to see this. It’s a small movie and it’s shot very sparingly, but it’s just a straight-up great movie with a compelling story that is shocking in many ways.
RYAN: And wonderful at the same time.
CAROLINE: Don’t miss it.