One day, three blue collar
friends from a small Midwestern town make a potentially thrilling discovery:
they find a crashed plane with a bag full of money ($4.4 million dollars). They
plan to keep the money, hiding their discovery from the authorities; however,
all the money begins to breed mistrust between the friends leading them down a
dangerous path.
A Simple Plan is a forgotten gem from
director Sam
Raimi, who is much better known for his Evil Dead and
Spider-Man
trilogies. He worked with composer Danny Elfman
(whose score is great – he is also a frequent collaborator with Raimi), cinematographer
Alar Kivilo,
and production designer Patrizia von
Brandenstein (who also did The Quick and
the Dead with Raimi).
The film stars Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda,
Billy Bob
Thornton, and Brent Briscoe,
and features support from Chelcie Ross,
Becky Ann
Baker, and Gary
Cole.
A Simple Plan is a great little
crime drama that seems to be mostly forgotten today. It makes a very good
companion piece to Fargo,
made by Raimi’s very good friends the Coen
Brothers. The film works very well because it gets at the darkness within
man; the corruption that is possible when there is money on the line. The film
is very dark, as the characters find themselves quickly going down a path that
there is no coming back from. It is also one of Raimi’s more subdued films
stylistically. It is beautifully shot and styled, but it does not feature many
of his more overt stylistic devices and camera moves. Raimi seems to understand
that the film would be somewhat diminished if its shooting style was packed
full of flair. Of Raimi’s work, it is also his most Hitckcockian in style and
feel. Alfred Hitchcock is one of Raimi’s cinema heroes and A
Simple Plan feels like a tribute to his work (average people who do horrendous
things). It is a must-see for fans of Raimi and good crime dramas. Again, this
is one of the gems of the 1990s that somehow fell between the cracks.
Trailer: Here
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