Saturday, December 18, 2010

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead

"The world is an evil place, some of us make money off of that, and others get destroyed." One of my favorite quotes from the movie.  I'll try to drop that at the bars this weekend. 

This woman is in it, if you didn't know her she plays one of Michael's former mistresses on the American Office.  I say it in the present tense because she comes back once awhile even though you thought she was gone.  Anyway she plays Ethan Hawke's ex-wife.  Ever since the office I've noticed her popping up in all these other movies that even though I've seen already I didn't know it was her until the office for some reason, I guess it was just a memorable character.  It's kind of like when you a hear a word for the first time, then you hear that word every day in normal conversation from that point forward.  One of those words for me was "caveat".  I only heard that word 6 years ago, now I hear and see it all the time.  Is there a word for that?

A lot of critics of the move say Marissa Tomei was the weakest link in this but I think that was just the type of character she plays.  She played perfectly the type of person that would grow up and marry the character of "Andy", kind of naive, ditzy, acts on her own low impulses but doesn't think anything through.  As we all know she is one of the best actresses since her debut, did you see her in In the Bedroom, holy fuck.


This is some of the best casting of a family I've ever seen.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke looking nothing alike, who would think they were brothers.  Yet with the casting of Albert Finney as the father you can see a little bit of both them in him.  It's hard to gauge from the mother since she is stressed most of the time, but I would say good with that too. 

Speaking of the mother (she looks a little like Ethan Hawke I guess), something is hidden in this story/movie about her.  She is a pretty good shot to boot.  Look at how she is getting ready to aim, it's like she has done this before.  Is it her fault that all this came to pass?  What is the real story of this granny?  As the story progresses, you begin to see the cracks in the family that in a weird way created this whole mess.  I'm not sure if this was part of it.  The title of the movie comes from the old Irish saying which is "may you spend 30 minutes in heaven before the devil knows your dead".  Not counting the bell-end robber she is the only one to die for quite sometime, could it be that this is who the title refers to?  This is just retribution for all the things in her past?  I think the father may have known it as well.  This movie definitely focuses on how our decisions create our path and how we must walk that path so I think it helps illustrate the argument that Albert Finney and his wife somehow led their lives to this point.  As viewer for just this 110 minutes we are to believe that these parents are an innocent yet if we expand the story to their whole lives it might become completely different. 

Conclusion:  Watching this for the second time I realize how much of a solid movie this is,  I think everyone that somewhat enjoyed it needs to watch it once more.   I first gave it an 8/10, but now full on 10/10.  At the surface it is just about your basic caper/heist movie but with powerful acting and superb script writing it brings a whole new pulse and dynamic to this repetitive genre.  In 20 years this will be regarded as at least a top 5 film of the decade if not the best in society's book.  This film has something that so many lack nowadays a stupendous 3rd act, and character motivation.  Even though what these 2 sons did was despicable, the audience can at least understand their actions and why they did it because of the time the creators took to develop them, a lot of films today find it hard to give motivation for a character to get out of bed let alone rob their parents.    Creating this motivation helps put the viewer in the shoes of these characters, which is what movies were always meant to do. 

Directed by Sidney Lumet, is Find Me Guilty any good?  The only thing I found disappointing about this movie was it's budget, $18 mil??  This could have been made for $1,000,000 with a few friends, with their locations and setup.  You figure that all the main actors, who don't command (nor demand) exorbitant amounts of salary anyway, probably did it for less to work with Sidney Lumet and once they saw the excellent script.   Not to mention it probably went pretty fast with the repetitive filming locations.  This could have easily been made for $12 million no problem. 

Stupid Goofs from IMDB -
Factual errors: SPOILER: When Andy buys tickets to Brazil he walks out of STA Travel. STA Travel caters to students and young adults. Andy is neither.
Answer - All you need is a fake ID.  Morally I don't think that would be a problem for someone that meets with a heroin dealer on a regular basis and embezzles from his company.  In face phony identification is probably a must.   

Factual errors: When Justin gives Andy a shot, the constricting band is not removed before injecting. It is incorrect and at least could damage the vein.
Answer - The kid is a drug dealer who barely looks 19, not a nurse. 

Errors Made by Character:  At no time when Gina and Andy are in the car does Gina wear her seat belt. In addition, no warning sound is heard when the car is in motion, stopped or put into motion again.
Answer - Sometimes basic features in a car break.  





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