This is a perfect thriller. The film takes place in New York in the present and casts Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Capote”) and Ethan Hawke as brothers. Yeah, brothers, even though they don’t look anything alike, but their acting is so good you won’t notice anything wrong (or right) with their relationship. Also in the cast are Albert Finney (“Big Fish”, “Miller’s Crossing”), Marisa Tomei (“In the Bedroom”, “Anger Management”), and Rosemary Harris (The Spider-Man series). The film can be not be this good if the listed supporting cast did not act so well.
I hate to give away anything about the plot, because to tell you anything important would involve the first big twist in the story, and trust me, you deserve to watch the film and let Sydney Lumet show you how a plot twist should be done. Two brothers, both need money, came up with a mutually agreed upon plot to rob a jewelry store, and everything goes horribly wrong. That is about all I can tell you about the plot without giving up spoilers.
The film started with a doggy-style sex scene between Philip Seymour Hoffman and Marisa Tomei. The fact that you are not going to remember much about this scene at the end of the movie speaks volumes about how good Lumet’s directing is. This first scene establishes for the movie an uncompromising tone, and the director never let that tone slip for even a second. He commanded your attention and will leave you wanting more after the movie ended. The scene is reminiscent of the nude scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Frenzy,” and it’s not hard to draw parallels between the two men. At the time he made “Frenzy,” Hitchcock was an old man that could afford to abandon all his vanity and just show everything as they are with intensity. Same thing with Lumet in this film, only he is older.
What impressed me even more is the great acting from the entire cast. Hoffman, Hawke, and Finney had always been solid in whatever movie I’ve seen them, and there is no question that they can act, it just never occurred to me that they can be this good and this natural together. The real surprise came from Marisa Tomei, whose sexy presence add to the realistic atmosphere of the film that sex is just sex, it happens every day and should not be done with special effects and romantic music.
There is another scene in the middle of the film that left an impression, and that involved a conversation between Hoffman and Finney. The quality of that conversation is so good it would make Cormac McCarthy jealous. I am really not at liberty to discuss the content or the circumstances of that particular conversation because it would give off too much information to the plot.
The movie is a tour de force with a Shakespearean tragic ending. The combination of the flawless directing and the acting makes it perfection. I have a feeling that the movie is too raw for the Academy, and will be robbed it of all nominations.
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