Wick's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

This engrossing and cleverly constructed family/heist picture features a host of great performers in front of the camera and the estimable Sidney Lumet behind it. The movie effectively flashes back and forth in time, showing how a couple of ne’er-do-well brothers ensnare everyone around them in the blowback from their disastrous criminal venture.

Acting - Great 4.0

Great cast! Philip Seymour Hoffman – in his second son-gone-wrong role of 2007, the other being The Savages – turns in a wonderfully slippery performance as a man living two lives too many. Ethan Hawke comes through as his dim younger brother, for whom charm has long since failed as a social passport.

Albert Finney ably plays grief stricken and then revenge bound as their father. Rosemary Harris (Peter Parker’s Aunt May in Spider-Man) employs her wonderful voice and matronly courage to great effect as their mother. Last but not least, Marisa Tomei delivers yet another solid post-glamour performance.

Film - Very Good 3.5

The great Lumet nimbly shows us the set-up, the build-up, the heist, the immediate aftermath, and the longer term devastation in a series of interlocking flashbacks and forwards.

Edge - Risqué 1.8

Reality - Glib 1.1

Impressively realistic

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