“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is the latest from veteran filmmaker Sidney Lumet, the auteur behind such masterpieces as “12 Angry Men,” “Dog Day Afternoon” and “Network.” At 84, you’d think that the 50-year veteran of cinema would be showing signs of letting up, but after miraculously conjuring a great performance out of Vin Diesel in 2006’s “Find Me Guilty,” Lumet is back with this, his strongest film in two decades.

A bleak fable of betrayed loyalties, it tells the tale of two brothers: heroin-addicted real estate broker Andy (Hoffman) and deadbeat sibling Hank (Hawke) who’s fucking his brother’s wife. Both strapped for cash, they come up with the perfect crime: robbing their parents’ jewelry store. But things go hideously wrong, and through a non-linear narrative we snake our way back to the beginning, revealing the misfortunes that destroys these corrupted souls.

On the surface, “Devil” is just another New York crime drama. But as the labyrinthine script uncoils, we see that the film is a modern-day Greek tragedy, a dark look at a suburban family in the depths of disintegration. From infidelity to insanity, we’re thrown face first into a world where family cruelty and maliciousness   is the way of life. 

It’s a bold move, and one that could easily have fallen into the theatrical depths of melodramatic tragedy were it not for the astounding cast. Led by Hoffman, who practically phones in another award-worthy performance, the crew is uniformly plausible in their actions, with the dimwitted duo of Hawke and Tomei turning in what is possibly their best work to date. All three were unjustly ignored at last year’s Oscars, as was Lumet, who showed that the scope and scale of a heist itself isn’t always proportional to the tension that it can generate.

2007 was a year of bleak cinema; a year where films like “No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” were embraced both critically and commercially. But the darkest of all was overlooked, and after nine long months, it’s hitting our multiplexes. It’s just a shame it was out on DVD here first.

4 Stars by Pavan Shamdasani.

Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, Albert Finney. Category III, 117 Minutes.