i finally got around to seeing before the devil knows you're dead today, and i was not at all let down. of course, phillip seymour hoffman was amazing as always (for further discussion of my favorite actor, read here), but i would have to say that the man who plays his father, albert finney, stole the show.
finney succeeded at portraying an old man in grief to perfection. the honesty that is expressed when he subtly apologizes to his older son (psh) for how differently he raised him and his younger son (hawke) is one of my favorite scenes of the movie. hawke was good as well, but, surprisingly, despite looking unbelievably hot, 
marisa tomei was unspectacular in the role of psh's wife who is cheating on him with hawke.the direction by sidney lumet (the man who directed the classic 12 angry men in 1957) was superb. lumet brilliantly used a technique i first saw in gus van sant's elephant where the audience sees the same series of events from multiple points of view and at different times throughout the movie, without going overboard and boring us with overly technical cinematography.
this movie is not for the faint of heart. the movie opens with a very graphic sex scene, and there is a lot of violence. this is also one of the saddest movies i have ever seen. but not in a predictable fashion. yea, people die, but it's the completely empty state of this one family that has gone through a series of self-inflicted wounds that is just almost too hard to take. do NOT go see this movie if you're in a bad mood. . .
No comments:
Post a Comment