BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD (2007)

Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) has planned the perfect crime and just needs his brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) to execute it. However, the job means that Hank must rob his own mom and dad's (Rosemary Harris, Albert Finney) jewelry store. The younger sibling actually goes through with the crime, his mom ends up dead, and his dad swears he'll find the killer by any means necessary. Hank, meanwhile, may be able to pin the entire rap on Andy, but that means enlisting the help of Andy's wife (Marisa Tomei), with whom Hank is having an affair.



Review:
The title of the film is taken from a traditional Irish drinking toast, "May you be in heaven half an hour, before the devil knows you're dead." And in a narrative devoid of any heroes, one might assess the title as long-winded, and excessive in its brutal pessimism. The story revolves around the caustic relationship between two bad seed siblings, elder Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a shady Manhattan businessman with a secret coke habit who is living way beyond his means and desperately in need of some quick cash, and younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke), a weak-willed whining loser also drowning in debt, that includes alimony and child support due to a nagging ex-wife and a financially needy young daughter. Andy hatches what he promotes as a foolproof plan to send gullible Hank to rob their parents' strip mall mom 'n pop jewelry store in suburban Westchester. Tragic complications arise when Hank wimps out and drags a bad news ex-con buddy into the heist without Andy's knowledge or consent, and his felonious chum and elderly pistol packing Mom (Rosemary Harris) end up in a fierce, bloody shootout where they basically blow each other away.