Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
THINKFilm | Release Date: October 26, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
86
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
His [Sidney Lumet] touch in Before the Devil is so sure, so perfectly weighted, that it’s hard to imagine him capable of making a bad movie. The thing is just enthralling. Read full review
100
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Furious and entertaining little morality play. Read full review
100
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The movie grabs hold and runs you through the wringer. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Mesmerizing. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorRobert Koehler
One of the great American films of the past decade, and the crowning masterpiece of Lumet's long career. Read full review
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
This flick is fast and ferocious, his (Sidney Lumet) sharpest and best since "Prince of the City" (1980) - and surely one of the year's finest. Read full review
100
SlateDana Stevens
Offers the rare pleasure of watching a major director return to his own material and rework it 30 years later. This story of a pitiful jewel heist gone so profoundly wrong that it approaches the scope of Greek tragedy isn't quite a remake of "Dog Day Afternoon." Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
In addition to being a study in great acting, this is a study in great directing. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A superb crime melodrama. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A wicked deconstruction of a dysfunctional clan: brothers at each other's throats; a father whose legacy is anger and betrayal; an unfaithful wife; a history of deceit. It's a horror show of hatred and festering psychic wounds. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Its virtues are velocity, energy, innovative storytelling - and something that seems even more the province of young directors: a certain heartlessness and ironic distance in the tone. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
This is not a drama of shadings, but of ever-increasing intensity. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Compact, nasty, and altogether wonderful, a tale of brotherly greed and New York comeuppance that shows an old dog dusting off old tricks using new technology. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Emotionally brutal, ferociously acted, crafted with unflagging expertise and relentlessly locked in its vision of human darkness, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is as grim and despairing as any tragedy by Sophocles or Shakespeare. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
Pungently atmospheric, brilliantly textured and featuring superb performances from every performer in parts big and small. Read full review
90
VarietyLisa Nesselson
The wrenching tale has something for anyone who likes their melodrama spiked with palpable tension and genuine suspense. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Schickel
It is, like quite a few Lumet pictures, rather small in scale, easy to overlook. But I think it is time to gather around a director who has embraced his octogenarian bleakness and sing his praises. Ultimately, I think you'll laugh a lot at what he has wrought here -- but only well after the movie is over and the full scale of its perversity settles into your bones. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
This is no nostalgia trip taken by an 83-year-old director. It's a fierce, hot slap of a movie, a shameless melodrama with bite. Read full review
90
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Bleak, weirdly witty at times and unrelentingly suspenseful, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is the cinematic equivalent of a perfect storm. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
While the evil that men do to one another in this film may well be rooted in the Cain-like enabling of original sin from one doomed brother to another, the final familial tragedy feels exactly like classic Lumet. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A dynamite film that ranks with the year's best. Read full review
88
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
The true star of this nerve-racking family crime drama, shot with a minimum of fuss by Ron Fortunato, is playwright and first-time screenwriter Kelly Masterson's deft script, which carefully develops each fatally flawed character and tells their stories in achronological flashbacks that seamlessly fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Arguably Lumet's best film in 20 years. Read full review
88
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The action is violent, messy, and threaded through with dark humor. This is a movie for grownups, for sure, but it has a mulish kick that most such pictures consider themselves to tasteful to aspire to. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
One bad idea can unravel and ruin lives in unimaginably horrific ways.That's the concept underlying the riveting Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, a sharply acted and highly entertaining morality play. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Ultimately, the film is just a smart caper picture with some good performances, but at times it's VERY smart, and Hoffman's performance in particular is one of the most natural and unexpectedly affecting that he's given in years. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Curiously exhilarating. Some of this comes from the simple thrill of witnessing something, or rather everything, done well. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'Hara
Bleak, brutal and quite possibly brilliant, this is a triumphant return to form for Lumet and further proof that Hoffman is on an incredible winning streak. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Philip Seymour Hoffman is in fine form as a man teetering on the edge. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
What you’re left with, finally, is the pleasure of a wily director’s company. In much the same way John Huston defied convention and predictability in the third act of his directorial career, with films as odd and fresh as “Wise Blood” and “Prizzi’s Honor,” Lumet is doing the same, right now. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
This is an adrenaline-pumping, devilishly well-made thriller set against the downfall of an American family. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Atmosphere is the main virtue with which this "Devil" can tempt us. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
The only player in this tawdry round-robin game who moved or seduced me in any way was Andy’s poor, hapless Gina. Tomei’s an ordinary beauty... But she has real screen presence and range, and her neglected wife is an artful inversion of her Oscar-winning role as Danny DeVito’s pert squeeze in "My Cousin Vinny." Read full review
67
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The result is not a first-class film noir but a top-grade acting class. You admire it without enjoying it. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
The evident strengths and laudable intentions of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (and even the appeal of Marisa Tomei in her undies) are overwhelmed by an implausible plot verging on unintentional comedy and a panoply of Noo Yawk dirt-bag supporting characters who might've seemed awkward on a 1993 episode of "NYPD Blue." Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Even though it's scripted by a woman (Kelly Masterson), this tale of buried family resentments rising to the surface as the brothers plot to rob their parents' jewelry store is concerned only with the guys, and it's marred by an uncharacteristically mannered performance by Albert Finney as the father. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The problem is not that the director is working but that his latest film is working too hard. Way too hard – this thing is melodrama running a marathon. Read full review
More From This Movie

86 Critic Reviews

8.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL