Before the Devil Knows You're dead (Review), directed by Sidney Lumet, starts with a widescreen view of Andy’s (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) (Andy) buttocks swaying at the rhythm of some doggy style sex with Gina (Marisa Tomei). The next scene takes us to the day of the robbery, a robbery the two brothers, Andy and Hank (Ethan Hawke) planned on a diamond shop. That's just about the first 5 minutes of the 2 hour movie, but it's as far as I will go with the plot without spoiling it for you.

The film explores the robber’s family interpersonal relationships and how each family member deals with the chaos of the situation at hand. And there’s loads of chaos going on. It's a combination of choosing the wrong thing to do at the wrong time, and Murphy's Law acting at full force, which makes the whole situation messier than a witch’s cauldron. Each of the 4 main characters has his own way of dealing with the situation, but none of them does anything to make life simpler. The subtitle of the film could be "A portrait of dysfunctional family".

Lumet (83 years old) uses a sequence of flashbacks to tell the story and keep you gripping the sofa with your fingernails with suspense. The flashbacks are only a week long at most, so they are used in an artistic way rather than being required, but this gives a nice twist to the direction of the storytelling.

You know that American movie feel-good feeling? There's nothing like that in this movie. The first word that comes to mind when thinking about the movie is 'sick'. In this case it doesn't mean bad, but it can be potentially disturbing for some people. It's the sort of movie that no matter how twisted and abnormal you feel, at the end of the film your life feels very normal. 4.5/5