Movie Review: The Devil You Know

 

Michael's Movie Grade: C

A well-made but forgettable crime movie.

The heart of this movie lies in its main character. This is a man who has lived a hard life and has paid for it. However, after coming out of jail, he straightened up his life and made good. However, his life once again turns south when it looks as if his brother may have had something to do with a murder that is all over the news. This is a character that we can all relate to and care about. While most of us have not been in jail, we have all done things that we are not proud of and the only thing we want to do is move on and leave those things behind us. We can also relate to his reactions to discovering his brother may or may not have something to do with a horrible crime. It is hard to say what any of us would do in such a situation. Should we protect and stand by the people we love, even when they have done something horribly wrong. A dilemma like this is easy to relate to and brings up questions in our own minds that we are not sure how we would answer. This character while being likable is also abundantly human and his obvious faults instead of tearing us away, just makes him feel more accessible. This character also works because of the very likable presence Omar Epps brings to the role. Omar Epps also has great chemistry with both William Catlett (who plays his brother) and Erica Tazel (who plays his girlfriend). This makes the scenes between these characters shine, even when the dialogue is quite corny. I also appreciated that this movie took its time and didn't feel the need to move the story faster than it needed to. This adds an atmospheric touch to the film that really worked. I also very much enjoyed that this film focused more on the family dynamic than the big crime. This felt really refreshing. 

However this movie has more than its share of problems. One of the main problems is scenes that feel cartoonishly over the top. This is mostly a very serious storyline, and these scenes feel completely out of place and distract from the emotion of the story. This is especially true of the climax, which completely does not work the way it should. This film also has too many characters for its runtime. Because of this most of them don't get as much personality as they should and come off as boring. Worse is the two "wrong guys" our main characters brother has been hanging around. These characters come off as very annoying and at times almost like unfunny parodies of these type of movie characters. There is also a lot of forced dialogue and unfunny attempts at humor.  

This is not a great movie by any means, but it does provide one with a nice trip to the movies.