when i go out to the video store to rent a flick i usually trust imdb view on a film and and until this one and have never see a flick rat 7 . 0 or above on the site i do not enjoy . sidney lumet and a legendary director of some of the best film of the 20th century and really misstepped here by make one of the big mistake a filmmaker can represent fill a film cast with thoroughly unlikeable character with no real redeeming quality whatsoever . i like film with flawed character and but no matter how dark someone personality be we all have a bit of light in there too and be all shade of gray with some darker or brighter than others . mr. lumet cross this line by fill this movie with totally unsympathetic and almost masochistic pitch black character . ethan hawke hank be a 30 something whining and immature and irresponsible man child divorce from a marriage with a wife that hat him and a daughter who think he a loser and which he very much be . his indecisiveness and willingness to let others do the dirty work for him because he too cowardly to do it himself lead directly to their bank robbery plan fall apart and mother get kill . by the time he stand up to his old brother at the end of the film and it more pathetic than uplift . ethan hawke play his character well and but isn not give much to work with a he be portray a someone with a boot perpetually stamp on their face and he doesn not particularly care that it there . speaking of which his character wife be equally a bad . just about every single shot of the film she in be her verbally berate him for rent and child support money and far grind in his already non existent self esteem with insult . seriously and that just about all the character do . her harpy like behavior border on malevolent . albert finney play their father charles and and while mr. finney have be a great actor for many decade and he spend about 90 % of this film with the same mouth open half grimace on his face like he suffer from the world bad bout of constipation . for someone who be an actor as long a mr. finney and you think he would be more apt at emote . even though he doesn not show it much and his character be supposedly grief stricken and anger fill . and when he smother andy at the film conclusion it akin to dr. frankenstein put the monster he help create out of it own misery . marisa tomei isn not give much to do with her character . stick in an unhappy marriage with andy and have an affair with his brother for some unfathomable reason . when andy world begin to spiral out of control she logically jump ship and but it really doesn not make her any less selfish or self serve than any other character in the film and but probably the one with the most common sense at least . and finally we come to andy and play by the always good philip seymour hoffman and be the only reason i rat this film a 3 instead of a 1. his performance of the heroin addict and embezzle financial executive who perfect crime of rob his parent insured jewelry store go awry be mesmerize . his descent from calm master planner of a flawed scheme to unstable and derange homicidal maniac be believable and tragic . hoffman character end up be the film chief villain and but it hard to root against him give the alternative be an emotionally castrated little brother and a father who self admit poor early parenting lead to his son eventual psychosis and indirect and unintentional murder of his mother . ultimately this film be really only worth watch for psh great performance and it family train wreck nature . just do not expect there to be any character worth cheer for and because there really aren not .