Customer Reviews

A Simple Plan

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, Brent Briscoe, Jack Walsh, Chelcie Ross, Becky Ann Baker, Gary Cole, Bob Davis.
Running Time: 121 minutes
Rated R for violence and language.

This is a diabolical tale about the wages of greed. Although it is played straight without intentional humor, the irony is so delicious at times that you might find yourself laughing. Jacob Mitchell (Billy Bob Thornton) is the one who begins to feel evil, and rightly so as the bodies begin to pile up. His presumably smarter brother Hank (Bill Paxton) feels mostly fear as he struggles to cover up one mishap after another. Their problems begin when they and Jacob's buddy Lou Chambers (Brent Briscoe) stumble onto a downed airplane in the woods covered with snow in which they find one dead person being feasted on by crows and a duffle bag full of hundred dollar bills. Lou, who might represent the common man, says, let's keep it. Hank, who could be rational man, says, whoa, this money belongs to somebody and besides we could get into trouble. We better turn it in. And Jacob, who is the natural man, sides with his buddy Lou. After all they're country poor and this is probably drug money that nobody is going to miss. And anyway, what can go wrong?

Well, as Ben Franklin observed a long time ago, `Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.' As they wait for spring to come and the plane to be discovered before they risk spending the money, the `simple plan' begins to unravel with horrific consequences. Thornton and Briscoe play country boys to perfection, and Paxton does a great job as a small town golden boy seriously compromised. Bridget Fonda plays Hank's pregnant wife, who turns out to be the brains (as it were) of the group. There are some very nice plot twists as the all too human emotions of the characters begin to crash into one another. Inevitably we have a morality tale in which the wages of sin are fully realized. Sam Raimi's ("The Evil Dead", "Spiderman) direction captures well the atmosphere of North Country America without any obvious straining for effect. He gets great mileage out of a few crows (actually some of them are ravens, I think) and a whole lot of snow. Scott B. Smith's script (from his novel) is clever and morally astute. The characterizations are excellent and the story psychologically satisfying. Particularly agreeable was the very sad, ironic end for Hank and his wife, who find that all the self-created hell they went through led them back to where they began, but without their souls. A dark message about greed and honesty is a topsy-turvey roller-coaster ride with beautiful cinematography and slick direction from horror-master Raimi. Not one for those who need a cheering-up session.

Proving that thrillers needn't exhaust audiences with bloated special effects and heavy doses of machine gun-fire, "A Simple Plan" joyously recalls the days when suspensers were more about suspense than pyrotechnics. Setting the story in the cold wintry woodlands of Minnesota, Scott B. Smith's screenplay dabbles in such engrossing elements as greed, consequence, and desperation, piling on plot twist after plot twist until the intensity almost becomes unbearable.

Bill Paxton plays Hank Mitchell, a working-class man who works at a local feed store to support he and his pregnant wife, Sarah, played by Bridget Fonda. He has a brother, Jacob, who is played by Billy Bob Thornton; Jacob, along with his pal Lou Chambers (Brent Briscoe), are the town's resident drunks. One snowy day, after a visit to their father's grave, Hank and Jacob, with Lou along for the ride, have an accident that sends Jacob's dog running into the woods. While looking for the dog, they come across a downed charter plane, its pilot dead, with a gym bag of four million dollar in tow.

The three waste no time tearing into the bag of "lost treasure," despite Hank's reservations about keeping the money. But Jacob and Lou have other plans, those which do not include alerting the proper authorities as to their recent find. After a heated argument, they agree that they will wait to split the money until they feel certain that no one will come looking for it. Just for safekeeping, Hank takes charge of the money, which soon takes charge of his good-hearted nature.

As the plot thickens, things begin to work into a frenzy. Sarah, now overcome with the idea of a wealthy life, urges Hank to keep a close watch on Lou, as well as Jacob, who becomes increasingly unstable as things reach new heights of desperation. The murder of a local farmer at the hands of Hank throws a new piece of leverage into the game, leading him to develop a new plan of making himself look completely innocent. More complications begins to arise, and soon, no one is left untouched.

Director Sam Raimi, whose previous work includes the wildly outrageous "Evil Dead" series, takes a unique turn in his career, directing Smith's screenplay (adapted from his own novel) with attention to story, action and character traits in equal measure. He is careful not to overburden his audience with too much at one time, clearing up one matter before introducing another so that each new development carries its own importance to the story. He also manages to keep things moving at a brisk pace, so as not to sink the movie into periods of boredom.

The script itself is one of the most chilling and satisfying I've seen in some time. It focuses on the effects of greed on mankind, turning the most well-intentioned of all townspeople into desperate, money-hungry slaves, replacing trust and good judgment with suspicion and rationalization. These changes are seen in each of the characters, most notably Hank and Sarah, whom we care for as the film opens, and utterly despise once it ends. Jacob, however, remains as the sole character with a grip on reality, overcome by his fears and his remorse for his actions; in the face of his brother's struggle to keep their twisted operation alive, he merely wants it all to come to an end and return to his life.

Fleshing out these characters appears to have been no simple task, but Paxton, Fonda, Thornton and Briscoe live up to the challenge. "A Simple Plan" portrays some of their best work, as well as that of Raimi's, who supercharges his otherwise quiet film with a terrific amount of underlying suspense that arises not solely from the grizzly crimes of its characters, but also from their unsettling states of mind once things get out of hand.

Director Sam Raimi crafts this story from the best seller. Set in a cold, wintry rural landscape, Brothers Hank (smart accountant Bill Paxton) and Jacob (dim-witted Billy Bob Thornton), along with Jacob's equally dumb friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), find a downed plane full of four million dollars. The pilot is dead and no one else knows about it. Could it be drug money? Sounds simple. However, family, greed and common sense don't always mix and the story soon goes haywire. No need to give away anything else other than there is an unexpected body count and an ending that will shock. This is one of those sleeper hits that never fails to surprise and delight. Bridget Fonda costars as Paxton's wife who goes through her own metamorphosis.

This is a brilliantly acted and directed look at the effects of greed on seemingly normal people. Bill Paxon and Bridget Fonda portray a happily married couple with a child on the way...Billy Bob portrays Paxon's brother, as (what seems to be) a dim-witted, worthless bum....and Brent Briscoe portrays Billy Bob's best friend, another unemployed bum, who is actually flattered to be called "The Town Drunk".

The three men discover a huge sum of money ($4.4 million) and talk themselves out of turning it in to the authorities, preferring instead to follow a "simple plan": hide it for a year, until "the heat is off" and then split it up and leave town. After all it is probably "dirty money" from some drug deal, and no one will be the worse for it....right? Unfortunately, the magnitude of this windfall is so great that it joins forces with the inherent weaknesses of human nature to completely undermine this "simple plan" and wreak havoc upon our "seemingly normal" characters, their neighbors, and associates.

The film is often compared to the Coen Brothers' "Fargo", partially due to the stark, expansive, snowy setting, but I feel that it also compares quite favorably to their first, classic 1984 film "Blood Simple", in which another "simple plan" leads to an ungodly tangle of murder and mayhem. Watch both, and you decide.

There are several violent plot twists, but to me the most impressive twists were of the psychological kind, and thus perhaps too subtle for those interested only in "blood and guts". Billy Bob turns in a magnificent performance as he gradually reveals himself to be not the dim-witted bum we thought, but a kind, sensitive, intelligent, and ultimately compelling individual. The Paxon role, a college-educated accountant, dripping with self-professed superiority and always "putting on airs" around his bumpkin cohorts, degenerates into much the opposite of our initial favorable impression, with the full encouragement and counsel of his "Lady Macbeth" wife, played by Bridget Fonda.

The most important feature of this movie, however, is that every move and decision....every action and reaction, are all very well justified by the characters, dialog, and events....all are quite plausible. You might not agree with all they do, but you definitely understand why they do it. Too often in movies like this, the characters do crazy, improbable things that we would never do, and thus lose our empathy and support...but in this movie, the plot and dialog are so beautifully crafted that we remain interested and concerned until the very end. I assure you that you will be deeply affected by the climatic scene.

All actors rendered superb performances; in several cases, probably the best of their careers, and the direction (by horror-maven Sam Raimi), stark settings, haunting background music (Danny Elfman), cinematography, etc. are all exceptional. If you enjoy a mature, complex, psychologically-challenging plot that is beautifully presented, you will enjoy this movie. It is disturbing, engaging, and (sadly) all too possible.

Before watching A SIMPLE PLAN, I saw THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, John Huston's 1948 classic that also tackled the same subject as this film. Fred C. Dobbs (Humphrey Bogart) allowed greed to get the best of him, and it destroyed him. But Huston wrapped this little tragedy in the adventure genre, and while it was indeed a thrilling adventure, Dobbs' downfall in Huston's film doesn't seem (on a visceral level, at least) quite as tragic as what happens to the major characters in Sam Raimi's film.

The major difference that perhaps makes A SIMPLE PLAN more powerful as an examination of greed than SIERRA MADRE is this: Huston's main characters went looking for riches in a land known to be full of 'em, so they didn't have to necessarily worry about being caught stealing anything---Dobbs & Co. only had to worry about other people trying to steal their gold. Hank (Bill Paxton), Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and Lou (Brent Briscoe) accidentally find $4.4 million in unmarked American currency in a downed plane in a quiet, snowy Minnesota town, and the moment they decide to steal the money for themselves (and that is basically what they decide to do, although they certainly try to convince themselves that it's not stealing) is the moment that changes all of their lives forever.

In SIERRA MADRE, Walter Huston's character talked early in the film about how he's seen money destroy men's souls. That is exactly what happens to the characters in A SIMPLE PLAN. It leads Hank to coldblooded murder, it leads Hank's wife (Bridget Fonda) to become a modern version of Lady Macbeth, and it drives Jacob to despair. In one key moment, Jacob confesses to Hank that he "feels evil," and that just about sums up the movie's theme succinctly.

While Huston's film also worked as a grand adventure tale, Raimi's film is more in the bleak, film noir style of the Coen Brothers' FARGO, right down to its Minnesota setting and constantly falling snow. It sometimes feels like a suspense-thriller (especially towards the end), but there are no stylish, bombastic action scenes here in the manner of Raimi's earlier films---just a lot of quietly devastating moments and flashes of quick but shocking violence. It's the emotional violence done to these characters, though, that reverberates throughout the whole film.

The performances are all powerfully convincing across the board, and while some might take issue with the plausibility of some of the plot twists in the film's later moments (I can't believe that no one actually bothered to ask to see that person's badge just to make sure he was who he said he was), that is hardly enough to detract from the tragic cumulative impact of this film. Highly recommended.

This is the story of three men: Hank (Bill Paxton), Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and Lou (Brent Briscoe). Hank is Jacob's younger brother; Lou is just a friend. Hank is married and his wife is expecting; Lou is married also; Jacob is single. The three men go out hunting in the cold Minnesota woods when they happen upon a wrecked plane. Inside the plane is a gym bag, and inside the gym bag is the American Dream: 4.4 million dollars in cold hard cash! The men then devise a simple plan to hide the money; however, as greed overcomes the men, the simple plan becomes an evil plot. As greed claims Hank's wife (Bridget Fonda) as its next victim, the plot continues to lead to corruption after corruption, murder after murder, sin after sin, and--ultimately--extreme tragedy.

Although Siskel and Ebert call this film a "razor-sharp thriller", and although the back of the film's cover describes it like one, IMHO it is not really a thriller. I personally think this film is more of a drama, especially since it doesn't really have the gripping suspense or the action the way most thrillers do. But the true beauty of the film lies not in how exciting it can be, but more how haunting and stirring it is in its depiction of good people turned bad.

In fact, this film is very quiet and completely devoid of big explosions, massive gun fights, car chases, or even loud background music. The musical score and winter scenery are perfect for the mood; cold, bleak, icy, quiet, bitter, and lonely. It all works really well in conveying its chilling message. Thornton and Paxton deliver fantastic performances as well.

My only major complaint is that you can guess the ending from a million miles away. Nevertheless, this film has quite a story to tell, and it is definitely worth a view. Warning: it is definitely not a "feel-good" movie, so watch it at your own risk.

This film is an adaptation of what is, without a doubt, an amazing debut novel of the same name that was written by Scott Smith. It is a fairly good adaptation of the book and is a modern day morality tale, which sees people's lives change significantly, when they come upon a veritable treasure trove of money. The change is not necessarily for the better, as the viewer will discover.

The plot revolves around two, small town brothers, Hank (Bill Paxton) and Jacob Mitchell (Billy Bob Thornton), who, along with Jacob's friend, Lou (Brent Briscoe), inadvertently come upon a downed plane that is buried in the snow, deep in the woods of a rural area. In that plane is a dead pilot, along with over four million dollars in cold, hard cash. All three of them could sure use the money. The question is, what are they going to do about it?

They come up with what they think is a simple plan. They will take the money and just wait and see, not spending it, until the coast seems clear. From the moment they make this decision, life is never the same for any of them. Hank, taking charge of the money for safekeeping, begins to undergo a change that is seemingly uncharacteristic of one who is outwardly so respectable, rational, and benign of countenance.

As the issue of the money begins to divide the three accomplices, greed and betrayal bubble to the surface, to culminate in a series of chilling, cold-blooded murders. Meanwhile, Hank, manipulated by his Ma Barker of a wife, Sarah (Bridget Fonda), begins a personal downward spiral, succumbing to an evil so profound, that it will leave the viewer open mouthed.

What happens to them all makes for an amazingly powerful and riveting drama. Fine performances are given by the entire cast. Pill Paxton is perfect in the role of Hank, the college educated, clean cut, family man with a secret moral ambiguity that makes him susceptible to his wife's Machiavellian behind-the-scenes direction. Hank has no clear moral compass. He really would like to keep the money, but wants reassurances from his wife that it would be okay to do so. His wife, a corn fed, all American miss, has no qualms about what to do, and Hank is too morally weak to resist in the face of his wife's wily machinations.

Billy Bob Thornton steals the show in the role of Jacob, the good ole boy, knuckle dragging, older brother who lost his inheritance, the family farm, so Hank could go to college. Unlike Hank, he has no job, no home, no wife, no children, and other than Hank, no family. He lives in a squalid apartment with his dog. He, however, has more of a moral compass than Hank has, and is reluctantly locked into a series of actions that make him sort of lose his lease on life. The viewer can see the personal angst that Jacob is undergoing and cannot help but be moved by Billy Bob Thornton's poignant performance.

Brent Briscoe does a fine job in the role of Lou, Jacob's best friend and the unemployed town drunk. He is a guy of limited intelligence who sees the money as a way out of his predicament, and wants his share sooner rather than later. His impatience and poor impulse control set off a series of events that lead to betrayal and his silencing. Bridget Fonda, looking like a blue ribbon winner in a county fair pie baking contest, gives a fine performance as the coolly collected Sarah, the wife who plots and plans Hank's moves. Of all of them, she is the one who wants the money the most and will stop at nothing to get it.

While the film deviates somewhat from the book, and the film's ending lacks the ultimate retribution for Hank and Sarah's sins and their role in the debacle created by their desire for the money, it is a still a wonderful and powerful morality tale. The screenplay is well-crafted, the cast is excellent, and the direction is deft. This is an engrossing film that is worthy of being in one's personal collection.

"A Simple Plan" could have been a truly great suspense movie and drama -- if it had only stayed true to the book. It seems weird to say it because the movie was written by the same man who wrote the book, but he had it right the first time. The movie never really lets you feel the full impact of just what the characters have done, and how far they will go, to keep the money. If you really want to see the depths the human spirit can sink to for money you should read the book.

It is not true that money is the root of all evil. Money is just a tool. The Scripture that is truncated to come up with that solipsism actually reads that "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." Our problem, as imperfect humans, is that it's so easy to fall in love with money...especially when one just bumps into $4.4 mil of it that looks to be as easy as the proverbial pie.

This is the problem encountered by overeducated feed mill worker Hank (Bill Paxton), his unemployable brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and Jacob's equally pathetic best friend Lou (Brent Briscoe). While Lou is an amoral loser and Jacob easily talked into anything, Hank has to be convinced, and that's one plot problem that we can accept because Lou knows Hank's buttons and pushes every one of them: Hank's job in a feed mill is a dead end, he's not getting anywhere in life, and wife Sarah has a bun in the oven. While Hank initially wants to turn the money in to the authorities, a nest egg is practically irresistible, even if it's Lou the town drunk who has to point it out to him.

So the three set a plan in motion: Hide the money for a year, and if nobody comes looking for it, they'll split it and leave town so nobody becomes suspicious that they're suddenly millionaires. Boy, does that sound simple. But, human nature being what it is, it just doesn't work out that way. In reality, this is just the beginning of a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions.

Hank's next mistake is to tell his wife. He does so hypothetically at first, and she at first says the same thing Hank does: Turn the money in. No way should it be kept. But when he dumps piles of cash bundles on their kitchen table, she is slowly seduced too. This is one of the film's most effective motifs; the love of money pushes this perfectly nice small-town couple slowly and inexorably toward becoming serial killers. While some have problems accepting this part of the story, one need only consider that Hank is on the brink, and all he needs is a nudge from the one person he respects above all others: His pretty, loving, pregnant wife. As with Eve in the garden, once she goes over the edge, he'll follow her anywhere.

The biggest problem I have in accepting the plot twists in this film is that the sheriff seems to have little trouble swallowing anything Hank says. Of course, Hank is one of the town's most respected men, a local area native and lifelong resident who is universally liked, a real cornerstone of the community. Still, there's more than one moment when we expect the sheriff to become more than a little suspicious. Ultimately, however, this is just a small town in the rural northern midwest; the county mountie doesn't have the experience or the resources to be CSI Minnesota.

Ultimately, if one can rationalize the plot problems above (and a couple of others I won't go into), then "A Simple Plan" is a very satisfying moral tale that even has an appropriate ending. One is even moved by the thought of what comes after "The End"--the couple must desperately trudge along through life realizing what they allowed themselves to become, and imagining what might have been. I really don't understand how anyone (as one reviewer was) could be "bored" unless he/she can't survive a film that doesn't have a car crash, explosion, or gratuitous sex scene every 15 minutes or so. I don't find a false note in any of the performances, the musical score adds perfectly to the mood, and the story is compelling and well told, with the minor misgivings above. Call it a 4-1/2 star minor masterpiece of suspense. Well done.

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

A lot of my friends have raved this film, and yet it has taken me an awful long time to finally see it. Actually, it was Stephen King (an author that I don't even really enjoy that much) raving the novel that peaked my interest in finally getting my hands on this film. This is certainly not what I expected; at all. In fact, this may be one of the best films I've seen in recent months.

It is simply stunning, and emotionally shattering.

The film tells the story of two brothers who, along with a dim-witted friend, stumble across a crashed plane containing four-million-four-hundred-thousand dollars. Hank, the responsible brother (the one with the wife, baby on the way, house, job), decides that they should turn the money in. Jacob, the not so responsible brother, and his friend Lou feel otherwise. Who's going to be looking for this money? Hank tells them that he'll stash the money himself, and once they are certain that no one is going to come after them they will split up the money and go their separate ways. It sounds like a good idea, until greed sets in and they all start turning on one another.

Then people die.

The film is beautifully shot and expertly paced to create a real sense of tension and dread, even when nothing startling is taking place. It reminded me a tad of `Affliction', which was released the very same year. I had a few issues with the tone of `Affliction'; something that I felt was rushed and not distilled enough to carry the films emotional complexity. `A Simple Plan' captures that distilled quality I really wanted to see in `Affliction' (a good film, but a BRILLIANT novel). The hushed sequences of gapping scenery only add to the texture of the film, creating something haunting to the core. You can feel the emotional weight of the situation crushing down on the people involved, and it is magnified by the soft, billowing atmosphere. The faux sense of serenity is beautifully manipulated here.

At its core, `A Simple Plan' is a morality piece; a film that dissects the very presence of greed and its ability to destroy everything we love. Just watching how each character becomes a pawn, a slave to the paper resting safely in a duffle bag, is heartbreaking.

Billy Bob Thornton broke my heart, and I consider his turn here the definition of tour-de-force. It hits you subtly, but when it hits you it hits you hard. It's a sucker-punch to the gut, a brilliantly layered and textured portrayal of conflicted morality and the pain that comes from insufferable guilt. Jacob is the most human individual in the film, and his loss is unimaginable. Bill Paxton is also very good here, at times a tad stiff, and certainly no match for Thornton, but he has very commendable scenes. Bridget Fonda is stunning here. The way she completely switches her characters morals is outstanding. Watching her go from a hesitant bystander to an accomplice to the ringleader is just haunting. Her explosion on her own husband ("WHAT ABOUT ME?") is so uncomfortably phenomenal.

In the end, `A Simple Plan' is far from simple, but it's those layers that make this film a MUST SEE for any and everyone.