this be a thoroughly diabolical tale of just how bad thing can go wrong . a simple robbery . pick up some serious change . get our finance together and everything will be hunky dory . butmom and pop jewelry store . no problem . insurance pay for it all . no gun . nobody get hurt . easy money . old and more successful ( it would appear ) brother andy ( philip seymour hoffman ) have a few minor problem . heroin addiction and cocaine habituation . a wife ( marisa tomei ) that well and he can not seem to perform for . his flat belly day long go . young and sweet and slightly dim witted young brother and hank ( ethan hawke ) with a few dinero problem of his own . behind in child support payment for his daughter and in debt to friend and relative and not exactly wow them in the work of work and etc . sydney lumet and in this performance at the age of 82 ( . ) and directs and get it 99 . 99 percent right and which be hard to do in a thriller . i have see more thriller than i can remember and most of the time the director get the movie print and live with the plot hole and the improbability and the cheesy scene and and the hurry up end . here lumet make a thriller like it a work of art . every detail be perfect . the acting be superb . the plot have no hole . the story ring true and clear and represent a tale about human frailty that would honor the great filmmaker and even the bard himself . hoffman of course be excellent . when you do not have marquee and lead man presence and you have to get by on talent and workmanship and pure concentration . ethan hawke and who be no stranger to the sweet and little guy role and add a layer of desperation and all too human incompetence to the part so that we do not know whether to pity him or trash him . albert finney play the father of the wayward son with a kind of steely intensity that belie his age . and marisa tomei and who have magical quality of sexiness to go along with her unique creativity and manages to be both vulnerable and hard as nail a andy two time wife . ( but who could blame her . ) it almost a movie reviewer sacrilege to give a commercial thriller five or ten star and but if you study this film and a all aspiring film maker would be well advise to do and you will notice the kind of excessive ( accord to most hollywood producer ) attention to detail that make for real art the sort of thing that only great artist can do and and indeed can not help but do . ( by the way and i think there be twenty producer on this filmwell and maybe a dozen while check the credit . ) all i can say in summation be and way to go sydney lumet and author of a slew of excellent film and and to show such fidelity to your craft and your art at such an advanced agekudos . may we all do half so well . okay and the 00 . 01 percent . it be unlikely that the father ( albert finney ) could have follow the cab that andy take around new york without somehow lose the tail . this be minor and and i wish all thriller could have so small a blip . also one wonder why lumet decide not to tell u about the fate of hank at the end . we can guess and guess . perhaps his fate fell onto the cut room floor . perhaps lumet be not satisfy with what be film and time run out and and he just say and leave it like that . it really doesn not matter . and i think it doesn not . what happen to hank be not go to be good . he isn not the kind of guy who manage to run off to mexico and be able to start a new life . he be the kind of guy who get a light sentence of 10 to 20 and serve it and come out a kind of shrunken human be who know he wasn not really a man when he should have be . see this for sidney lumet and one of hollywood best and director of the pawnbroker ( 1964 ) and the group ( 1966 ) and serpico ( 1973 ) and dog day afternoon ( 1975 ) and network ( 1976 ) and and many more .