A Simple Plan (1998) Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, Brent Briscoe, Jack Walsh, Chelcie Ross, Becky Ann Baker, Gary Cole. Screenplay by Scott B. Smith, based on his novel. Directed by Sam Raimi. 123 minutes. Rated R, 4 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly www.nuvo-online.com Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott To receive reviews by e-mail at no charge, send subscription requests to pbbp24a@prodigy.com
"Don't worry. Nobody would ever believe you're capable of doing what you've done." So it goes in the strikingly effective thriller, "A Simple Plan," where even words of consolation come with a sting. For the production, writer Scott B. Smith reworked his hit novel into a focused, economic script, which director Sam Raimi has crafted into that rarest of creations, a movie that is better than the book. To best enjoy the film, I'd suggest you not read the rest of this piece until after you've returned from the theater. If you choose to continue, remember that you've been warned.
"A Simple Plan" chronicles the results of a fateful decision made by three men on a winter day outside their small, Midwestern hometown. When Hank (Bill Paxton), his brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's friend Lou (Brent Briscoe) come across a downed plane containing a dead body and a bag with over $4 million in cash, they huddle to discuss what they should do.
Hank wants to turn everything over to the police. After all, he and his wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) already have a wonderful life. Hank is a respected member of the community with a good job, and the couple has a baby on the way. Everything is fine just the way it is. But Jacob and Lou, both poor and miserable, have different ideas. After much arguing, they come up with a simple plan. Hank will hold the money until the plane is discovered by others and the subsequent investigation completed. Once they are sure that the authorities are finished, they'll split the bounty, leave town and move on to better lives elsewhere.
But, of course, matters rarely go as planned. All too soon, distrust and greed stir up unresolved issues from the men's pasts. The film has an amazing number of twists and turns, including several violent moments, but nothing ever feels contrived. This is storytelling at its most genuine, with detailed, believable characters and considerable acumen.
"A Simple Plan" is set against a background of snow, effectively establishing a crisp, stark atmosphere that aides the film immeasurably. The ominous tone builds slowly and surely; even the periodic bursts of gallows humor serve to underscore the ever increasing sense of dread. Director Raimi handles Smith's words beautifully, aided by a superb cast who make every sentence crackle with authenticity.
As the mistrust grows, relationships are examined and reexamined, and the effect is mesmerizing. Most thrillers are content to just follow the central plotline, but this film pokes and prods areas rarely examined. Jacob and Lou express their resentment over the way Hank talks to them, and we get an insightful glimpse into the middle American class system, where individuals with less education, little money or weak social skills are marginalized by the better schooled.
Listen to the exchanges between brothers Hank and Jacob, forced into intimacy by circumstance, and you'll understand how easy it is to put human beings into neat, categorized little boxes; to use selective memories to create nostalgia for a glossy, comfortable past that never was. As an average man in way over his head, Bill Paxton gives the best performance of his career, and Billy Bob Thornton is nothing short of phenomenal as Jacob, a grimy outcast who is far more observant and intelligent that he appears to be.
Watch Hank and Sarah, who start the film content with their storybook existence together, only to have their perception of the good life perverted by the lure of wealth. It's fascinating, and frightening, to witness their change in attitude. Bridget Fonda is a wonder to behold, transforming from a blissful mother-to-be into a woman who views all she once treasured as a trap, a purgatory of repetitious mediocrity from which escape is mandatory.
"A Simple Plan" is a stunning psychological study of lives unraveling, of promises betrayed and hope turned to dust. Early in the film, a character refers to the cache of money as "the American dream... in a gym bag." Raimi and Smith's powerful "A Simple Plan" shows the consequences of pursuing a dream at the expense of your own humanity.
© 1998 Ed Johnson-Ott
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