Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

2007 Directed by Sidney Lumet

No one was supposed to get hurt.

When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store, the job goes horribly wrong, triggering a series of events that send them and their family hurtling towards a shattering climax.

Philip Seymour Hoffman Ethan Hawke Albert Finney Marisa Tomei Aleksa Palladino Michael Shannon Amy Ryan Sarah Livingston Brían F. O'Byrne Rosemary Harris Blaine Horton Arija Bareikis Leonardo Cimino Lee Wilkof Damon Gupton Myra Lucretia Taylor Marcia Jean Kurtz Adrian Martinez Patrick G. Burns Alice Spivak Natalie Gold Keith Davis Mateo Gómez Chris Chalk Sakina Jaffrey John Knox James Lally Jordan Gelber Megan Byrne Show All…

Alternative Titles

7h58 ce samedi-là (2007), Antes que el diablo sepa que has muerto, Antes Que o Diabo Saiba Que Você Está Morto, Mielőtt az ördög rádtalál, Перед тим як диявол дізнається що ти мертвий, Tödliche Entscheidung - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Avant que le diable ne le sache

thriller crime drama

117 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by DirkH ★★★★½ 21

Whenever people make lists with favourite or best directors, Sidney Lumet hardly ever pops up. That should change. Look at his filmography. He is one of the best directors that ever worked in the industry.
This film is modern noir at its finest. It is bleak, rather disturbing and dark as hell. The story, which unravels in an asynchronous chronology, is multilayered and keeps you guessing due to its fragmented narrative. Only a very talented director can add the much needed coherence a story like this needs.
What Lumet understands very well is to give his actors the right amount of space to inhabit their characters. There is not one weak performance here. The main cast is superb, moved along…
Review by brat pitt ★★★

these guys were ridiculously bad at crime. like i would be way worse but that's why i don't commit crimes
Review by christian di leo ★★★★½ 4

hands down one of the best movies of 2007, a gripping family crime tragedy that you would see unfold on late-night A&E
ethan hawke and philip seymour hoffman are giving career-best performances here, they play pathetic and desperate scumbags so damn well
marisa tomei is great as always and is naked for like 85% of her scenes, so yes, my crush on her continues to grow at an alarming rate
albert finney absolutely kills it, this man is in pain, he is out for blood and he wants answers
even my main man michael shannon pops up for a couple scenes, being rough and intimidating as always
but most importantly, i would like to thank this film for prolonging my life-long quest of: NEVER HAVING CHILDREN
👹💎💰🔫💉
Review by PTAbro ★★★½ 9

Dear god, what a dismal tale. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is an exercise in taking an instance of 'it can't get any worse, can it?' and making it much, much worse in the very next scene. I certainly don't mean in the quality of the film, which is superb, but in the depths of misfortune one family can sink to. This is tragedy of such magnitude that The Bard himself would be proud, compounded by the fact that all the misfortune is due to greed and ineptitude. Sidney Lumet's swan song deserves a place in the pantheon of 'bleakest films ever,' which makes this familial train wreck all the more morbidly fascinating.
Not a single role here is…
Review by chavel ★★★★★ 8

“It’s insured, so it’s a victimless crime.” – Andy
The most anguished, tortured, complex, brilliant performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s career. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is the staggering crime drama where two hard luck brothers decide to knock off a mom and pop jewelry store – their very own mom and pop’s.
Andy Hanson (Hoffman) proclaims, “We don’t want Tiffany’s. We want a Mom and Pop operation, in a busy place, on a Saturday when the week’s takes go in the safe. We both worked there. We know the safe combinations.” Mom is not supposed to be working that Saturday morning. A third outside criminal-for-hire was not supposed to be complicit in the crime. Alas, it does not…
Review by Scott Tobias ★★★★

Crackerjack. With this and the underrated Find Me Guilty, Lumet staged a mini-comeback before peace-ing out.
Review by Nick Hernandez ★★★★½ 6

Geez what a f**cked up family lol.
I really dug the nonlinear storytelling for this. From the very opening scene it all unfolded so smoothly and kept your attention and your curiosity the entire runtime.
And that opening. Sheesh. I mean Hawke’s reaction alone had me invested right from the start.
Another small stand-out to me was PSH’s mini-monologue in the car about his dad. That just gave me chills. RIP.
That Michael Shannon cameo had me hyped too.
The score didn’t stand out on its own to me but it still felt like it served the movie really well.
And shout out playing CDs in the car. Still do that myself, though not as often as I used to.
Overall, this is a really well crafted film by Sidney Lumet. Tremendous execution of a riveting script carried out by the greats Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke.
Sidney Lumet, Ranked
Movies Watched in 2020, Ranked
Review by Joe Bender ★★★★½ 6

After losing one of the best actors of our generation today, Philip Seymour Hoffman, I wanted to check more of his films. He left behind an amazing body of work and I've only seen maybe half of it. I started with Sidney Lumet's dark and brilliant noir Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
The script here is so damn good. Keeping you invested in characters that are very unlikable. The cast is terrific, with Hoffman and Ethan Hawke both giving great performances. Albert Finney was probably the standout to me however. Not only is this yet another great performance from Hoffman, but it's one of 2007's most underrated films and a great film for Lumet to have ended his career with.
Review by Simone ★★★★★ 2

Even though I saw this years ago, I was still completely surprised by everything that happened during this recent re-watch. All I remember from the last time I saw it was that I liked it. This time, I fell head over heels in love. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is essentially a family drama masquerading as a crime drama. Andy and Hank are brothers in very different stages in their lives. When Andy asks Hank to rob a jewelry store, everything goes wrong and the rest of the film is concerned with how their lives fall apart and how fucked up their family is.
This is definitely Phillip Seymour Hoffman's best performance, and that's a big deal. He always…
Review by Felipe Fritz ★★★★

The forbidden chapter of the Before trilogy
Review by Theo ★★★★

Is there anyone nice in this film ? Probably only Marisa Tomei but even if she was nasty she’d still somehow be nice. Fantastic mix of crime n family-drama n betrayal n all of the above. Plus Michael Shannon shows up as a wannabe gangster so we’re all winning! Great stuff
Review by Steve G 🐝 ★★★★½ 2

The truly great directors don't fade away. They keep kicking and screaming and proving people wrong to the very end.
Alfred Hitchcock went back to London and enjoyed the post-Hays Code freedom of being able to make the sleaziest thriller he ever made before turning his hand to a deft black comedy. Stanley Kubrick stuck two fingers up at pop culture and those many who said you couldn't make a serious film with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in it, and proceeded to make one of the greatest films of his career. If not the greatest.
Sidney Lumet, at the age of 83, saw Before The Devil Knows You're Dead released after a string of worthy but under-appreciated films went…

Recent reviews

Review by Alcarendor ★★★½

Tiene una sencillez en las tomas que comparte con Spotlight y que le sienta fenomenal.
Review by Greg Warne ★★★

Might make a Letterboxd list of films pre-2010 where Michael Shannon shows up out of nowhere and you're all like "hey, it's Michael Shannon!"
For a very late game Sidney Lumet film, this is pretty good with great actors giving brilliant performances. The story isn't particularly fantastic though and combined with that ugly, early digital photography, it does not look very good.
The non-linear approach to the storytelling does give it something though. And dammit I miss Philip Seymour Hoffman more with every movie I see him in.
Review by Nicolas Martinez Gomez ★★½

Tiene una estructura narrativa a lo The Killing que solo es efectista ya que no suma nada a la construcción del suspenso y termina por alargar el metraje. Y cuando intenta en los últimos minutos encontrar un equilibrio entre thriller y drama termina en excesos en ambos frente.
Hoffman inunda la pantalla cada vez que aparece.
Review by MofoJones7 ★★★★½

Damn
Review by Mohammed Loukilia ★★★½

PSH at his best .
Review by dickienator ★★½

would’ve been a 5/10 but that one Hoffman scene in the car bumps it up to a 6/10. (we’ll call it a 5.5) average watch, engaging acting by the leads, i call it the poor-man’s Uncut Gems lol.
Review by J ★★★½

Marisa tomei
Review by ivcp1984

Que cúmulo de historias tan satisfactorio; el hilo conductual [dejando de lado el respeto por el discurrir del tiempo] de los acontecimientos es tan potente que deseas seguir estirando.
Review by Julie ★★½

Why are these brothers so depraved
Review by Ken Karpel ★★★½

Well... shit really escalated.
Review by Troy Andrews ★★★★★

WHAT A FANTASTIC FILM!
If there is anybody that reads these reviews of mine - you should make this film your next watch. And read as little about it as possible, going into this film blind will have the greatest effect. Thank me later.
Cleverly written. Powerfully performed. I was totally engrossed.
Review by eduCash ★★★

Buena tensión
RoboS
Buen juego del tiempo, quizá algo parecido hizo Nolan en Dunkirk muy posteriormente