Dir: Sidney Lumet USA 2007 116 mins 16

It's difficult to imagine a pair of more morally degenerate characters than brothers Hank and Andy (Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman), and watching their gradual unravelling is this film's chief pleasure.

Both siblings have money problems and their neat solution is to plan a heist on a 'mom and pop' jewellery store. The sting is that the mom and pop in question are their own. The film's great strength lies in its finely calibrated pair of central performances. Seymour Hoffman shines as a repressed volcano of rage and Ethan Hawke deftly sketches Hank as a terrified idiot who might be lovable if it wasn't for his willingness to be talked into armed robbery.

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