# Simple Plan, A (1998)

### reviewed by
Kevin W. Welch

    A Simple Plan

Sam Raimi has directed a harsh, depressing thriller here. Like all good thrillers, A Simple Plan has a strong caution for us all: Be careful about wishing for too much money, because you might actually get it and then you have to try to keep it.

Hank Mitchell works in a feed mill in a small Minnesota town. His wife, Sarah, is pregnant. His brother Jake is sort of slow but is a good, loyal sibling whoıs been denied a lot in his life. Jake is best friends with Lou, the loutish town drunk who isnıt nearly as funny as he thinks he is. On New Yearsı Eve the three of them visit the Mitchellıs parentıs gravesite and by dumb luck (a fox runs in front of their truck, causing an accident), they discover a crashed airplane with a corpse and 4.5 million dollars in cash. They think briefly about turning it in to the cops but they quickly decide to keep it, as long as Hank holds the money. If no one comes looking for it by the spring, theyll all split the money and leave town. In the meantime, they promise to keep quiet about everything. This is the simple plan, the first of many. Everything is so simple--at any given moment, they are just this far from having the plan work.

Nothing works, of course. This first plan unravels almost immediately. These arenıt the brightest characters ever to grace the silver screen. By that I donıt mean that this is an idiot plot that relies on everyone acting very stupid. Rather, these people are by turns cunning and blind to the flaws in their plans in ways that are agonizingly realistic. You know that any three men who found four and a half million dollars would really act this way. You also know that their plans will unravel, in this way or some other way, leaving behind a great deal of misery.

Hank always thinks of a new plan, or else Sarah thinks of a plan for him. Every new plan has a problem, and every problem ends up with someone getting killed. The movie moves, slowly and painfully, to what seems like an inevitable conclusion, when suddenly the plot twists and twists again. You know all along the broad outlines of the ending. What actually happens, though, heats up the plot more than you would think possible while also revealing unsuspected depths in the main characters.

A Simple Plan is filmed in winter weather so dreary it almost seems like a black and white movie. While Bill Paxton as Hank is a little flat as a reluctant schemer, Billy Bob Thornton nails Jakeıs village idiot role to the wall, and Bridget Fonda is astounding as a small town Lady MacBeth. The plot is tightly woven for the most part, though certain key elements seem to rely on shoddy police work (one professionally conducted autopsy should bring the whole Simple Plan to a screeching halt, for example). Overall, though, A Simple Plan is well-made, intense and harrowing in the extreme.

    Kevin Welch
    kwelch@mailbag.com

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