Was I supposed to sympathize with the scummy widow’s brother at all? Because the only problem I had with that scene was that Hank didn’t shoot him right in his smug cocksucking mouth. I did like his deadpan reply to his stupid little diatribe, however:
Smug cocksucking brother: “Hey, you with Chico? You must be Groucho. You mind if I call you Groucho?”
Hank: “No, I don’t mind if you call me Groucho. o___o” blam
Finally saw this last night and enjoyed it immensely. The setup take about 30 minutes. When the setup is over, you understand the crime and how horribly wrong it goes. You think it’s giong to slow down and turn into a character study, but instead the tension ratches up with all the twists. I enjoyed the way it was cut. The tension was pitch perfect. The one scene where Ethan Hawke needs his driver’s license (which he has just lost to a thug) to retrieve a potential piece of evidence is just brilliant. “Do you have a credit card? Perhaps the one you used to rent the car?” And then… he gets the evidence! I laughed when that happened. Little bit of misdirection, but it worked for me. And even Dad deteriorating as he can’t get any satisfaction from the cops. I liked watching him slowly lose his grip, as his grief and anger overwhelmed him. The ending felt a little off, considering he was backing into parked cars at the halfway point, but I’m not complaining. He pulled it together long enough to stick it to the kid. Great story.
I can’t remember who he was fucking now. Wasn’t it his wife?
Rented and watched it by myself last night. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me cringe in sympathetic guilt with the brothers (esp. Andy) and not utterly loathe them for some reason. And then finding out how far Hank is willing to go. The juggling narrative really worked for me; no complaints here. Strong, strong performances all around (agreed with Tom on Tomei.)
Great scene not mentioned yet: The father going back to the city and talking to the old school diamond market dude who fences a little on the side. “Now you know how far some people are willing to go” or words to that effect.
Yes. His extremely hawt wife. And considering that Marisa didn’t have a problem doing nude/sex scenes later on where we could very clearly tell that it was her, I’m inclined to believe that was her in the first scene as well. This probably needs to be confirmed. ;)
Also… (further first scene explanation; slight spoilers? Aw hell, it’s been out on DVD for months)
As Tom mentioned, it is important that this scene is stuck in at the front and remains outside the garbled and frantic narrative of the days surrounding the crime. Hank and
Gina are having great sex while on vacation somewhere in Brazil apparently. There is a dark cloud over them however, we get the impression that all is not peaches and cream. Later on the time in Brazil is brought up; a reference to a time when they still might have had a chance at happiness, a chance to get away from the present problems. A country without an extradition treaty to the U.S. When Hank is firmly resolved to fix the situation he grabs his passport.
Alright guys, enough is enough. The murderous psychopath played by Philip Seymour Hoffman was Andy.
Hank was the name of his wimpy brother, played by Ethan Hawke.
Whoops. Hanks Arthur.
I finally got around to seeing this as well and it was brutal, but wonderfully done. The desperation of both brothers was drawn and portrayed well and Hank’s tortured decision about whether to go through with the robbery even before he knew the target made it that much more gut-wrenching when he was told who it was.
I am not sure I have seen Hawke in such a ‘weak’ (for lack of a better term) role, but he pulled it off and then some. Hoffman was perfect as he made me loathe him all the way through. It of course started with the first scene when his portly ass was servicing his wife.
Holy crap is Marisa Tomei still great and great looking. I wish they could have expanded her role into more scenes somehow (and yes, clothes on would have been fine), but it most likely would have detracted from the rest.
Albert Finney is either just super-old or knows precisely how to play a man in his declining years. His mouth-open gazes had me confused as to whether he was actually just ancient. The scene where he wakes up from napping in the hospital room, looks over at his wife, and then slumps was a good one for me.
The whole thing was a brutal ride straight down. I think some real life issues played into my empathizing with some of the characters’ predicaments and the 4 beers I had while watching also probably aided in this view of the film. I wonder what I would have thought about it sans alcohol.
One more thing…I agree the tearing up of the apartment was a good scene in the way that it was played, but the whole way through I did not so much think of it as a great look at Andy’s pain, but a well-engineered scene by Lumet as acted by Hoffman.
Is that the same Albert Finney who played the splendid Hercule Poirot in the 1974 classic Murder on the Orient Express? If so then yes, he must be really super-old by now because he was in his advanced middle age even back then.
Marisa Tomei was born in 1964…wow.