El plan

The film deals about Hank(Bill Paxton), his loser brother Jacob(Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's best friend, a boozy bud named Lou(Brent Briscoe) find the wreckage of an airplane in the heavy snowy Minnesota forests. The pilot encounters dead and appear a bag filled with various million dollars in stolen money, that they think is dope cash.The trio decide to keep silence about it and Hank hold the money hidden in his house.But someone else is looking for the money, a Fed agent(Gary Cole) and the sheriff(Chelcie Ross)are investigating. Besides, the Hank's mean and pregnant spouse(Bridget Fonda)brings out the greed and soon bad things start to happen to everybody those involved.

This neo-noir story contains drama, thriller, tragedy and is quite entertaining. From the beginning to the ending, suspense and mystery is continuous. The film is plenty of twists, especially on its final part and the script is adapted from the 1993 novel by Scott Smith. The picture is well set and shot in rural small town of Delano, Minnesota. Acting by main actors is frankly excellent with special mention to Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda as the ambitious librarian wife. Suspenseful and atmospheric music score by Danny Elffman, he's Raimi's usual musician and appropriate cinematography by Kivilo . Firstly was Ben Stiller hired to direct the movie with Nicholas Gage as starring but his wage overall budget and they left , then was set Sam Raimi who made a magnificent direction. He learned techniques on filming in the snowy woods from the Cohen brothers who formerly had directed ¨Fargo¨, a story with certain similarity. Rating : Very good. Better than average. It's a ¨must see¨ for Billy Bob Thornton fans and suspense genre enthusiastic.

Sam Raimi may be most at home with Horror, but his body of work in the last three decades has encompassed a variety of genres, the most intellectual of which is drama. One could argue that a Simple Plan is Raimi's smartest picture but it is not a film where we see any of his distinct auteurism. Equal credit for the film's reasonable competence goes to novelist Scott Smith, adapting his own novel for the screen.

The plot bears some close resemblance to Fargo. One could argue that A Simple Plan is a few steps ahead of the Coen Brothers. It feels far less contrived, and has a bigger heart. Fargo is cold, cynical, but definitely creative. Anyway, that is another movie

Three buddies find a plane wreck in the woods, and inside is a sack containing four million dollars. They agree to keep it hidden until they are convinced that the police are not looking for it. Sounds simple enough, but things get ugly pretty quickly.

I've never thought much for either Bill Paxton or Brigit Fonda, but A Simple Plan shows them at their best, although Billy Bob Thornton's is the most accomplished performance of the movie.

The movie is one worth seeing, it is admirable and thought provoking. There is nothing necessarily unique about it, but then again uniqueness is a rare gift for a movie to have.

Say what you will about him, like him or hate him, you gotta admit that Raimi knows the craft. Here, he puts Hitchcock's methods to good use, decades after the master died, and creates amounts of suspense that honor his memory. The tension is thick and impossible to ignore. This is exciting and engaging, and it's completely realistic, down to earth and human, to boot. The pace is spot-on, this never outruns the viewer, in spite of being fast and tight, and so much of the relationships and past being told to us through hints, the behaviour and how situations evolve. More thrillers should be like this. This also qualifies as noir and drama. The acting is beyond reproach, there's not a single performance that is lacking, and I'd say Paxton does pretty good in a lead role. Kudos to Thornton for not turning his part into a caricature. The writing is excellent. I have not read the novel, but I would like to do so. I understand that this isn't entirely as brutal as the book, though it is disturbing, and, at times, violent. The cinematography and editing are incredible. There is some strong language in this. The story is magnificent, and develops so well throughout. Thank you, Sam, for making an effort, for not just going for the lowest common denominator, and for understanding that it was the build-up - not purely the plot twist at the end - that made Alfred, and his films, such treasure. The DVD holds a theatrical trailer. I recommend this to any fan of the director and/or anyone else who helped create it. 8/10

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-

A Simple Plan is certainly not a simple film, as some reviewers here had hoped it would be. The point is not how simple life is, but how horribly wrong and out of control things can get. This film takes you to the absolute depths of human greed, desperation, and frailty. It is amazing how many evil deeds one can rationalize by believing "and then it will all be over." A Simple Plan is a great character study which makes you think of what you would do in the same situation. At what point would you draw the line? How far would you go to keep millions of dollars all to yourself? The excellent photography adds to the sense of desperation that permeates the whole film. The vast, snowbound landscape is the perfect image for the feelings the main characters have for their station in life: cold, silent, lifeless, unending, and unrelenting.

Don't watch this movie unless you are prepared to see a group of people reach the end of their rope and make a series of life-changing decisions.