# Simple Plan, A (1998)

### reviewed by
Jeremiah "Spassvogel" Rickert

    A Simple Plan

    A Review:

    By Jeremiah Rickert

Starring: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda Directed by Sam Raimi

Synopsis: Three men discover 4.4 million dollars in a downed plane that has been hidden in a wildlife preserve. They decide to stick to a simple plan: hold onto the money until the springtime, when the plane is sure to be discovered, and tell no one about it, not even wives. Once they can be sure that no one is looking for the money they plan to split it three ways and leave town. They figure the money is most likely drug-money and therefore it's "not really stealin'." The three men are Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton), a basically straight-up family man, his brother Jacob Mitchell (A totally immersed Billy Bob Thornton), who is unemployed and a bit slower than his brother Hank, and Jacob's drinking buddy Lou (Brent Briscoe), another beer-swilling good ol' boy. Little by little, their simple plan becomes more and more complicated until it starts consuming people one by one.

This film's biggest asset is the screenplay. Written by Scott B. Smith, adapted from his own novel, the film has nearly perfect pacing and as the tension surrounding the plan begins to wind up, the plan itself begins to unravel, slowly at first, and then in torrid gasps. All of the resolutions of the plan that the three men come up with: don't tell anyone, even wives, everyone has to agree to leave town, and so on, are violated one by one by one. The first thing that Hank does when he gets home is dump the money on the table and tell his wife (played with a very subdued cunning by Bridget Fonda) everything. She then gets involved, and suggests taking some of the money back to the plane to when it is found, they'd think that it fell out or something, for no one would leave behind $100,000 if someone had found the cash, would they? Her complication of the plan leads to the death of a farmer who happens to be in the area when they're planting the money on the plane. It's only downhill from there, as more and more people are killed for the sake of the plan. Sooner than they hoped, an FBI man comes to town with information on the plane, but there are doubts to whether he's really an FBI agent, or one of the people who lost the money.

Most of the performances are top-notch, especially that of Billy Bob Thornton as the slower brother Jacob. Jacob is almost a foil for Hank, the upstanding straight-arrow family man. He may be slow, but his motivations are the least greedy of the bunch. At one point in the movie, after so many have died and the money seems to be an imminent reward, Jacob asks Hank "I'm gonna be happy now, right?" Really all Jacob wants to do is to remodel their father's farm, but that means he's not going to leave town as was part of the plan. Jacob ends up being the most observant one of them all.

Sam Raimi had a lot to prove with this film in many ways. As he's most well known for his comedy/horror films and his hyper-kinetic camera work, this film was in a way a make it or break it for him as a mainstream filmmaker. For the most part, he avoids his camera-tricks and lets the characters carry the film. There are number of Hitchcock-ian references, from Psycho's crows, who are an omnipresent witness to the crimes that are concealed for the sake of the plan, and a Birds-esque scene where Hank is seemingly attacked by some startled birds in the fuselage of the downed plane. The cinematography has a definite Fargo-esque pedigree to it, but considering the locales of the film and of Raimi's long associations with the brothers Coen, that does not seem surprising. The film starts off with what appears to be a reference to "It's A Wonderful Live" when Hank walks through the town wishing everyone a happy new year. Just as the audience begins to think of him as George Bailey, he soon begins to look like Norman Bates.

The film is really a downward spiral of desperation, on the part of just about every one of the characters who have a relationship with the 4.4 million dollars. A lot of filmgoers will probably be put off by the rather un-hollywood ending, but hopefully it won't overshadow the wonderful performance by Billy Bob Thornton and the great screenplay by Scott B. Smith. It's perfectly paced and both Smith's script and Raimi's direction precisely control the tension of the film, winding it tighter and tighter as the plan begins to unravel.

Of the $4.00 I payed for the film, it was worth every penny, $4.00

    copywright 1999 Jeremiah Rickert

Jeremiah "Spassvogel" Rickert 6'7" 320 lbs of Dr. Pepper and Pez Candy.

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