# Simple Plan, A (1998)

### reviewed by
Kevin Patterson

    Film review by Kevin Patterson

    A SIMPLE PLAN
    Rating: **** (out of four)
    R, 1998
    Director: Sam Raimi
    Screenplay: Scott Smith
    Starring Cast: Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Brent Briscoe, Bridget Fonda

It's now become something of a standard operating procedure for reviewers to describe A SIMPLE PLAN as "cold," "icy," or "chilling." At the risk of indulging in a cliché or seeming too overly cute (it's partly a reference to the weather in the film), I'd have to say that all of those words would be perfect descriptions for this unsettling morality tale about little evils leading to big ones, as three men decide to engage in what seems like a harmless white lie in a win-win situation.

A SIMPLE PLAN takes place in the wintry climate of rural Minnesota, where people are few and far between, where the ground is covered with snow for miles on end, and where there's enough open land that a small plane could crash out in the woods without being discovered right away. That's exactly what happens in this film, as Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton), his brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton), and their friend Lou (Brent Briscoe) go traipsing through the wilderness after their dog. This particular airplane has evidently been there for quite a while, and inside is not only the long-dead pilot but a sack containing over four million dollars in cash. Despite Hank's initial reluctance, they eventually decide to keep the money themselves, rationalizing that it's probably illegal drug money and agreeing to wait six months and then split it up if no one comes to claim it.

Except, of course, that it's not as easy as that. Jacob makes a slip and almost lets on to the local police chief that they know something about a missing plane. Hank's wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) gets involved and suggests that they put some of the money back so as to deflect any possible suspicion upon the plane's discovery. Somebody gets too close to finding out what's happening and is promptly knocked unconscious by a paranoid Jacob. The deceits and cover-ups escalate until finally one of the three men finds himself in a situation in which he sees no other option than to murder an elderly man lying helpless in the snow at his feet. Soon, the shaky alliance between the three starts to crumble as they realize they can't trust each other with their terrible secret. More dead bodies pile up, and those left standing continue to bury themselves alive under an accumulating heap of lies, guilt, and murder.

Director Sam Raimi and screenwriter Scott Smith put the audience right where we probably don't want to be: that is to say, right there with the three anti-heroes as they devise scheme after scheme to cover their tracks and grow increasingly paranoid and violent. We hate what they're doing, but, like it or not, we do identify with them and sense their desperation, because at their roots, these three are not bad people. They're ordinary people who did a bad thing and are trying to escape the consequences. The first time one of them kills somebody, Raimi keeps the camera on his face as he looks away from his victim: he's not a cold-blooded killer at heart, and he doesn't want to think about what the morality of his desperate split-second decision to destroy another human life. And neither do we, for that matter: between this scene and several others, A SIMPLE PLAN had me shrinking back in my seat from the implications of what was happening on screen more than any other film in recent memory.

A SIMPLE PLAN takes a somewhat satirical view of the class divisions between the somewhat successful Hank and the blue-collar, unemployed Jacob and Lou. The latter two are the ones who first suggest keeping the money and essentially bully Hank into silence when he protests that they should take it to the police. Yet once things get out of control, Hank proves himself to be far more capable of cold-hearted violence and manipulation than the other two. Jacob, on the other hand, is more upset over the things they've done and also realizes that he doesn't want to take the money and go build a "well-to-do" life somewhere else: he wants to use it to buy their father's farm and make a living for himself in his hometown.

While one could certainly find a "love of money is the root of all evil" message in A SIMPLE PLAN, I think that the lesson Raimi and Smith are pushing is a little more basic: they're trying to show us the trouble you can get into from a lapse into spur-of-the-moment moral relativism. If I did have to pick a philosophical cliché to attach to this film, I think it would be more like, "Every choice has a consequence." Or two, or three, or ten, as the case may be. The title, of course, is a rather appropriate irony, in that there is nothing the least bit "simple" about the elaborate deceptions and cover-ups in which the characters eventually find themselves caught up.

It would be easy to "Hollywood-ize" a story like this, either by staging a violent action climax in which the wrong-doers get their comeuppance or by turning it into an amoral dark comedy caper. Fortunately, the filmmakers are smart enough to see this story through to the end on its own terms. In fact, the possibility of exposure and imprisonment is only of secondary concern here. Instead, Raimi and Smith focus on the psychological and spiritual damage to those who have participated in these schemes, as the characters grow to despise what they've become to the point that one of them literally cannot live with himself any more. This is a wise artistic choice that actually strengthens A SIMPLE PLAN as a cautionary tale: it seems to say that getting caught is almost irrelevant, because in the end, your conscience will inflict due "punishment" for your misdeeds.

A SIMPLE PLAN is not the kind of film that is always especially "fun" to watch, nor should it be. It does, however, feature some of the best character-writing of the year, and it provides an insightful and probably all too truthful look at the self-serving side of the human psyche. This one probably won't be raking in a fortune at the box office, and it will probably be mostly overlooked when it comes to the award ceremonies, but Raimi and Scott can and should be proud of having made a film as unusually (and unsettlingly) honest as this one.

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