"POINT OF REVIEW"


A Simple Plan
Starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda
Written by Scott B. Smith and Directed by Sam Raimi


Nothing is simple in life is it? Work, family, friends, happiness... We all struggle to find a place in the world where we can “have it all”, so to speak. The dream life. Whatever your definition of happiness or dream life is -- doesn’t it always seem like it spins around one thing? Yeah, money. A Simple Plan is a beautifully executed film about those two exact things: money and happiness -- and how they always seem to butt-heads with one another.

Bill Paxton plays Hank Mitchell, a simple man who leads a simple life. He has a beautiful wife with a baby due any minute and a reputable job running a hardware store in a snow-filled small-town where everybody knows everybody and is as sweet as apple pie. Is he happy? Everybody believes he is, especially his unemployed less-than-attractive, dopey brother, Jacob, played by Billy Bob Thornton and his overweight, also unemployed friend who mooches off his wife. Well, that is all about to change...

One morning as the three of them go to visit the grave of Papa Mitchell, they happen to stumble upon a plane in the middle of a dark and creepy forest blanketed by snow and filled with cawing crows. Nothing really special, except for the fact that inside the plane they find one very dead pilot and a bag with 4.4 million dollars in it. At first, Hank’s boy scout ways urge him to report the situation to the authorities, but after some good old fashioned peer pressure and just the sheer sight of so much money in one area and in such close distance -- Hank does what any of us would do -- he comes up with a simple plan. From that point on we don’t need the numerous crows to tell us that things are about to get incredibly “un-simple”.

Based on the novel of the same name by Scott B. Smith and directed by the always skillful, Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, Evil Dead), A Simple Plan is a complex story about the dark-side of humans when it comes to greed and a thrilling look at how much happiness is really worth. A Simple Plan is filled with tension, betrayal, suspense, twists, plenty of turns, and lots of crows (a very nice nod to the master of suspense and evil himself, Alfred Hitchcock -- who Sam Raimi is a huge fan of). And like a classic Alfred Hitchcock film, A Simple Plan delivers on so many levels. The performances are beyond spectacular with each character peeling away layers of themselves to reveal their true selves as the plot unfolds (Billy Bob Thornton is at the top of his game, showing us that dim-witted people probably have the most dimensions to their character) and Sam Raimi constructs each scene with great care, giving us scenes that just get better and better as the film progresses -- leaving the audience salivating before each scene begins.

A Simple Plan is wonderful storytelling and skillful filmmaking. Quite simply, it is one of the best films you will ever see.


THE RUNDOWN:

The Good: An excellently executed suspense/thriller.

The Bad: Alfred Hitchcock is not alive to congratulate Sam Raimi.

The Law: A Simple Plan is an excellent example of a good story that turned into a great film.