BEFORE: A rare director crossover, since I don't tend to organize these films by director. But this is another film directed by Sydney Lumet - I meant to watch this shortly after he died earlier this year, then I tried again to watch it on Philip Seymour Hoffman's birthday, but that fell during Comic-Con and the Robin Williams chain. The theme of crimes committed by family members carries over also - and linking tonight is done through Luis Guzman from "Family Business", who was also in "Magnolia" with Philip Seymour Hoffman (last seen in "Scent of a Woman"). I couldn't easily link Dustin Hoffman with Philip Seymour Hoffman, though I tried...
THE PLOT: When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store the job goes horribly wrong.
AFTER: Another theme developing this week - the downward spiral. Also seen in "Edge of Darkness", and to a lesser extent in last night's film. In this case, two brothers look to rob a mom-and-pop store - literally, their parents own a jewelry store - and they figure no one will get hurt, the insurance will cover their losses, and they'll fence the stolen goods and get the money to help with their other problems.
And everyone's got problems in this film - and they all seem to take steps to improve their situations, but end up making things much worse. One brother's behind on child support, and the other's about to be caught in some kind of payroll/audit scandal. So it's hard to back a winning horse here, and it's hard to feel sympathetic for characters who turn to robbing their own parents. Maybe the unemployed brother could, I don't know, get a job instead, and the other one could straighten up and fly right?
Meanwhile, the rest of the Lumet-iverse is populated by shady characters like robbers, drug dealers, cheating wives, and screeching ex-wives. Hmm, who to root for - how about none of the above?
We know the robbery goes south, since it's the first scene in the film - then the narrative backs up a few days to show us one brother's experiences in the last few days, then backs up AGAIN to show us what the other brother was up to. This continues throughout the film, constantly showing us the same action from different perspectives. I'll admit that we do learn more each time the plot rewinds and starts again, but from a narrative standpoint, it's just as confusing as it is enlightening - what day is it? Is this action taking place before the robbery, or during, or after?
Which leads me to suspect that this is a half-hour of story, tops, and the constant re-winding and re-telling is covering up this fact, and extending everything out to almost two hours of film. If you've got a powerful and story, it should be able to play out in linear fashion, without losing the impact. Any monkeying with the timeline is perceived by me to either stretch out the story, or intentionally deceive the viewer. If we learn an important new fact the second time a scene plays out from another perspective, then that's trickery.
NITPICK POINT: For criminals who seem overly concerned with not leaving evidence behind, you'd think they'd wear gloves. I'm just sayin'.
At least last night's criminals were considerate enough to at least think about turning themselves in - that never seems to be an option for the criminal brothers here. And with that being the case, they have to go to greater and greater lengths to cover up the crime, which leads to more crimes, then more things to cover up - it's a vicious cycle.
So we get another film that doesn't have a shiny, happy ending - quite the opposite.
Also starring Ethan Hawke (last seen in "Dead Poets Society"), Albert Finney (last seen in "Erin Brockovich"), Marisa Tomei (last seen in "Anger Management"), Amy Ryan (last seen in "Changeling"), Brian O'Byrne (last seen in "Million Dollar Baby"), Rosemary Harris.
RATING: 6 out of 10 ski masks
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