Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
This movie was recommended to me by a couple of friends, and I don't know a single thing about it. I think I'll like the movie though because I've liked the majority of the movies that these friends have suggested.
After having watched the movie:
(Possible spoilers below)
Wow. I have a hard time saying that I really liked this movie without feeling like someone is going to judge me for it, but the movie was really good. The part I feel like most people are going to judge me on is the fact that the story just destroys family and it's just one tragic decision made after another.
I mean, in one way you kind of start thinking that maybe Phillip Seymour Hoffman is onto something. By robbing his parents jewelry store as opposed to some other privately owned business you do kind of feel like you're a little more in control of the situation. Then you consider the fact that you know the business is insured so the only 'victuim' would be some major corporation, who in some way we all just seem to think that today big business in America has it coming. And really in a way, it's not so much a robbery as it is insurance fraud. To cure any sense of guilt, which Hoffman's character doesn't seem to have a moral compass, you can bring baby brother in on the plan to help curb some of your own guilt.
The whole thing seems like the perfect crime until the moral part of you starts in with, "What in the hell was I just thinking?" or "In what world would this ever be acceptable or okay?" Only, and I know I'm just repeating myself at this point, it's still such a big deal to me that Philip Seymour Hoffman never has that moment throughout the movie. He just continues to keep digging his grave until his Dad comes in to make sure he ends up six feet under by the weekend.
While watching the movie though I just kept trying to imagine how these two brothers were going to explain their way out of this situation. I hated watching their father, played by Albert Finney, sit with his wife in the hospital and being pressured into making such a hard decision to take his wife off of life support. What made the scene even more difficult to watch was that Philip Seymour Hoffman's character was the one pressuring his father to make a decision. I can't say that I really blame or find fault with Albert Finney for killing his own son, but at the same time that wasn't the right decision to make in this scenario.
Final thoughts: I don't know what happened to these people earlier in life that would lead them to believe the choices they were making throughout the movie were the best possible decisions at all times. I feel like the movie is so dark that I'm going to be judged for saying that I liked the movie, but my friends were right. This is a good movie, but I'd never dream of recommending this movie to some of my more conservative family members who think Harry Potter is too much.
OFFICIAL COUNT 62 DOWN 303 TO GO
Next up: Being John Malkovich
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