A Simple Plan (1998)

Do you ever feel evil?

A Simple Plan is directed by Sam Raimi and adapted to screenplay by Scott Smith from his own novel of the same name. It stars Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, Brent Briscoe, Chelcie Ross and Jack Walsh. Music is by Danny Elfman and cinematography by Alar Kivilo.

The snowy wilds of Midwest America, and two brothers and one friend unearth a crashed plane in the snow that hosts one dead pilot and a duffel bag with over $4 million dollars stashed inside. It's moral quandary time. Keep the money as it's probably drug money anyway, tell the police, or sit on it and wait to see what happens? A decision is made, and it literally turns everyone's life upside down...

Scott B. Smith's novel was perfect for a filmic adaptation, in essence it's classic noir with its small town Americanna setting that houses a moral twist of fate that ultimately sees the town implode from within. How refreshing to find the author adapting his own source material, and not only that, to find that it has also gotten a grade "A" production from Raimi and his team.

The story is in all truth simple, it asks the characters, and us, what to do when finding so much cash? Fate meant they found it and fate then dealt its moral card, from the point the decision is made, nothing will ever be the same. The tale spins the three male characters, and one pregnant wife, into a vortex of bad decision making and misery. Enter paranoia, greed, murder, panic and a whole host of other bad things to upset the equilibrium that once dominated their mundane, but safe, lives.

Director Raimi, who apparently received coaching from his pals Joel and Ethan Coen about how best to work in the snow (the Fargo likeness is well noted by critics), ensures the coldness of the landscape dovetails perfectly with the untangling world of the protagonists. With the frost bitten locale acting as the extra character, and as an accomplice as it happens, Raimi slots in memorable imagery to tickle away at the senses. Animals figure most darkly, with crows and a fox in the hen house beautifully endorsing the themes of decay and the need to kill to survive. While the pacing is sublime, Raimi using a slow dripping tap method that tightens the screws until violence jolts the story, and us, to the precipice.

As a character piece it's superbly mounted, where Raimi is indebted to a four pronged delivery of acting performances of some substance. Thornton was rightly lauded for his turn as the slower brother to Paxton's (excellent) all American nice guy, but Briscoe as the "town drunk" best friend and Fonda as the inverted femme fatale wife, also deserve great praise for realisation of characters that bring this Shakespearean neo-noir to vivid life.

Elswhere the tech credits are thematically notable. Kivilo's photography is in sync with Raimi's ideals about the snowy backdrop playing a key part, and Elfman's score, while not something to interest potential newcomers to his work, works very well as blunderbuss percussion is replaced by appropriate woodwind that flits about the wooded surrounds with foreboding glee.

At the end of the day it comes down to quality of story telling, in that regard A Simple Plan is a first class production. If you haven't seen the film or read the novel, then I certainly would recommend the novel to read first as there are inevitable tone downs in the movie. But that is not detrimental to the film's worth, for the visual version of Smith's novel is engrossing, chilling and poignantly bleak. And away from his Indies, it's still Raimi's most accomplished film so far, and he really should consider doing more neo-noir in the future. 9/10

***Bleak crime drama in the wintery Minnesota woods***

Two brothers & a friend from a small town in Minnesota (Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Brent Briscoe) happen upon a crashed plane in the woods, which contains over $4 million in cash. They assume it’s drug money and hatch a simple plan to sit on the money until spring when the plane is discovered; if no one legitimately claims it they’ll divvy it up. But things don’t go according to plan due to idiocy, mistrust and greed. Bridget Fonda is on hand as the main protagonist’s wife.

Directed by Sam Raimi before his ultra-success with the Spider-Man trilogy, "A Simple Plan” (1998) was written by Scott B. Smith based on his page-turning book of the same name (there are enough changes to make both worthwhile). The wintery Minnesota setting is fitting for the bleak psychological drama. Speaking of which, the best thing about this movie is its exploration of human nature and how “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil,” as the Bible puts it.

The movie effectively shows how basically good and normal people can be corrupted by the temptation of easy wealth; so corrupted that he or she is suddenly willing to murder, lie and connive. The story works so well because of the three well-defined characters. We’ve all met these types in real life: The wholesome, educated man who’s not quite living up to his potential and yet is generally satisfied; the loser, screw-up who’s never been with a girl even though he’s in his 40s; and the annoying redneck hick.

The film runs 2 hours and was shot in Minnesota (Delano, St. Paul & Golden Valley) and Wisconsin (Ashland).

GRADE: A-

Yikes, talk about money being the root of all evil! "Hank" (Bill Paxton), brother "Jacob" (Billy Bob Thornton) and their friend "Lou" (Brent Briscoe) are out hunting in the snowy wilderness when they discover the wreck of a plane. The pilot's corpse is still at the controls but they are more interested in the contents of a sports bag. It's got over $4m in it! What to do? Hand it in? Put it back? Keep it? Well the whole story is set against a backdrop of a less attractive American dream with a paucity of opportunity for any of these men. "Hank" will soon be a father and "Jacob" is determined to reclaim a family farm that was foreclosed upon years earlier. Decision made! Initially they are organised and disciplined. No splashing the cash, taking things responsibly and keeping under the radar - but gradually that disciple starts to crack. Not least because the expecting "Sarah" (Bridget Fonda) is conceivably even more determined to use the cash than the men who found it. Pressures begin to build, trusts begin to fray and some newspaper clippings inform them a little more of the likely source of their windfall. With the arrival of the FBI - well things turn sour on just about every level. It's Thornton who takes the plaudits here with an understated effort as probably the most principled of the men but all three work well together, with the increasingly Fonda stoking the fire, and though maybe just a little drastically far-fetched towards the end, this is quite a telling story of just what people might be prepared to do to better their lot. It's setting amidst the cold and darkness coupled with a rather benign small-town mentality (especially amongst local law enforcement) serves the scenario effectively as a sleepy town where nothing much ever happens starts to resemble something from an horror film. It's carefully written with little excess dialogue cluttering up a story of bad choices eliciting even worse ones, and is well worth a couple of hour.