(2007) An Irish toast, "May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead," is the title's source. Just about everyone's toast before the end of this bummer of a film, directed by Sidney Lumet, in which an older brother exploits his younger brother's financial troubles to knock off a mom-and-pop shop, but the enterprise goes to hell.

The opening scene of Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hoffman) banging his wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei), in Rio, Brazil, is the paradise he wants to regain. Instead he descends the circles of hell, taking his brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), and others with him. The story zigzags, back and forth in time, changing perspectives between the two brothers, as if they're seeing each other from opposite sides of the bottomless pit as they spiral downward.

Not wanting to get his hands dirty, Andy offers his younger brother the perfect, victimless crime (expecting to sweep up at least half a million dollars, all insured merchandise) to help him out of his financial fix of alimony, child support, mortgage, etc. Hank, a real-estate accountant in a big New York City firm, has his own problems with an upcoming IRS audit (the books don't add up) and an expensive drug addiction. He says of himself while in a heroin haze: "My life doesn't add up … nothing connects … I'm not the sum of my parts."

When Hank says, "I'm in," Andy reveals the location for the knock off: a mom-and-pop jewelry store in Westchester, literally, since it's their parents' shop. Scared of doing the job alone, Hank enlists an accomplice, Bobby, a petty thief; Bobby makes a mess of the heist and gets killed.

Andy, expecting an elderly woman to be in the store on Saturday morning, had instructed Hank to take a toy pistol, lock the woman in the vault, and empty the cash register and display cases. Simple. Except that Nannette Hanson (Rosemary Harris), his mother, filling in for an employee Saturday morning was opening up the store, while her husband, Charlie Hanson (Albert Finney), had to go to the DMV to renew his driver's license on his birthday.

Neither Hank nor Andy seems to be aware of their father's birthday, but a birthday he'll never forget. Hank has forgotten a few crucial things along the way: a CD left in the rental car and Bobby's girlfriend Chris when he picked Bobby up early Saturday morning. Andy makes the mistake of not eliminating Hank once events begin to unravel.

As the old diamond dealer says to Andy's father: "The world is an evil place, Charlie." By the conclusion, none of these characters possesses a redeeming soul worth saving.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .