A Simple Plan

This review will probably contain some spoilers. I will try to warn the reader in advance before I give anything away but if you have not seen this movie yet you should proceed with caution.I saw this movie in the theater when it was first released. That was fifteen years ago but the film made a lasting impression on me. It was on television this year on Christmas and I caught a portion of it and was reminded of what a great movie it was so I went out and bought it and watched it again from start to finish. The movie is about a group of small towners who find $4 million dollars in a crashed plane and decide to keep it. It seems simple enough: they will hold onto the money until they are sure no one is looking for it. If someone does come looking for it they will burn it. There seems to be little risk but the title is meant to be ironic. Things quickly spin out of control and get very complicated.The plot is fairly simple and straight forward but this movie is much more than the standard crime caper. It is a morality tale about the corrupting influence of money, a meditation on small town despair, family tragedy, and the allure of the American dream. Hank, the primary "protagonist" of the film, seems happy enough when the film opens. He has a steady job, a beautiful wife, and a baby on the way. He is well respected and well liked. However, as the film progresses we learn that Hank's happiness is probably only skin deep. His father went bankrupt putting him through college and committed suicide (though Hank is apparently unaware of this, on a conscious level at least), his brother is a lonely alcoholic, and his job is less than fulfilling.Then he finds $4 million dollars and things spiral out of control. Of course, on one level it is an example of how money can corrupt but, I think, it is also about the way we trick ourselves into believing we are happy. It is like Aesop's fable about the sour grapes. The fox is unable to reach the grapes so he tells himself they are too sour. But what if the fox were to have the grapes presented to him on a silver platter? Would he still say they were too sour? This movie is about a group of people who have grapes handed to them on a silver platter and, all of a sudden, they realize they have been dissatisfied with their lives all along. They really wanted the grapes. They just seemed out of reach.SPOILER ALERT. To me, the defining moment of the movie is when Hank decides he is going to take the money back to the plane. He has already committed crimes that he never thought he would be capable of, and he has gotten himself entangled in a web of lies that is threatening to become ever more complex, but his wife, Sarah, talks him out of returning the money. She asks if he really wants to spend the next thirty years of his life working at the feed store, while their daughter is forced to wear hand me down clothes, and Sarah spends her life with a fake smile checking out library books and cooking the same dinner over and over. Suddenly there is a grinning skull of silent despair that becomes visible behind the veneer of happiness at the beginning of the film.ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT. In my opinion, the ending to the movie is perfect. Hank has been forced to commit four murders (killing his own brother in a scene reminiscent of Of Mice and Men) all in an effort to keep the money, and keep the American dream alive, only to find out that the money was meant to pay a ransom and the F.B.I. wrote down the serial numbers for about 5,000 of the bills. Realizing he will never be able to spend the money he burns it as his wife pleads with him to keep it. The ending, to me, has the force of the ancient Greek tragedies. Everything is destroyed, except Hank and Sarah, as they are forced to live out the rest of their days in quiet despair, like Oedipus whiling away his days after gouging out his own eyes.The acting in the movie is superb. Billy Bob Thornton plays a great lonely alcoholic. Jacob is a sad and fairly sympathetic character. Everyone views him as being kind of stupid, but he has a good heart, and he is wiser in some ways than his brother Hank. He understands their own family history (their dad's bankruptcy and suicide) better than Hank and he comes to understand the corrupting influence of the money sooner than Hanks does. Bill Paxton does a great job playing Hank and I was especially impressed by Bridget Fonda's transformation from a loving and moral housewife to a devious and amoral schemer.There are some people who claim the transformation of Hank and Sarah was not believable. There is some truth to that. I understand, at least, where they are coming from. However, I would like to provide an anecdote from my own life in response. A number of years ago I was watching the movie Hotel Rwanda about the genocide that took place in Rwanda and I was, as usual, resting in my own sense of moral superiority in relation to the people who committed those atrocities, when suddenly I realized "I am a human. They are humans. Anything they are capable of, I would be capable of under the right circumstances. Our brains and nervous systems are built the same." (Similar, in substance, to one of my favorite quotes of all time, from the Roman comic playwright Terence “I am human, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.”)I actually think that is one of the themes of this movie: that even the most ordinary, and moral, people are potentially capable of anything under the right circumstances. Who can say what we might be capable of if we were in the presence of $4 million? We have all probably daydreamed about a scenario similar to the one in this movie at some point. It is not just pieces of paper dangling in front of our imaginations in those fantasies. It is a whole new life (the same dreams that inspired the conquistadores to risk life and limb searching for a city of gold or a fountain of youth). Those kinds of dreams can wreak havoc (as they did in the case of the conquistadores) and, I think, this movie highlights the often destructive effect of the "American dream" in all of its shapes and forms. It is an extremely powerful dream and has historically proven itself more than capable of driving people to near insanity in its pursuit.Whatever your opinion of this movie, I think one thing that we can learn from this movie is: as much as we might daydream about finding $4 million in the woods, we better hope and pray that those dreams never come true.

It's a trainwreck. Horrible decisions through out. I can watch it twice in the same day or days. Because, you can't believe these ordinary people with a good enough life can ruin it over greed and lust for money. Death and destruction for what? Money? Really? Friends and family are sacrificed for for a SOULLESS future and guilt. The end of happiness.

We liked

I thought this was certainly one of the best movies of 1998. The story, although dark and tragic, was excitingly suspenseful for much of its duration. This was a film that had all the ingredients a great movie needs...strong writing, solid direction, and phenomenal acting. Perhaps the "fall from grace" the main characters exhibit was a bit of an exaggeration, but it was still a powerful portrayal of what good people will resort to when put in a position that breeds greed. And again, the acting was magnificent. Besides the highly acclaimed performance of Billy Bob Thornton (which was rewarded with an Oscar nomination), there was the equally brilliant performance by the late Bill Paxton who, up until this film, had shown unrealized promise, potential, and capability. However, in Plan, he plays his character almost perfectly. Indeed, I think that this was Paxton's finest performance of a career that spanned over four decades. Finally, Bridget Fonda gave a very solid performance in a role that was understated, and yet subtley brilliant. In fact, her character just may have been the most diabolical of all, excelling at manipulation of the highest level. You don't just watch this movie, you experience it. You can sense, early on in the film, that there is going to be a downward spiral that, eventually, leads these characters down a pathway of heartache and destruction. And because of that, Plan is certainly not a feel-good story. You're not going to come away from it all warm and fuzzy inside. But then again, that's the whole point of this morality tale, which is, in my opinion, one of the best movies that came out in 1998. And although it doesn't have a happy ending , it doesn't pull any punches either. Even though you feel bad for these characters, you can't really say that they didn't get what they deserved.

This is a lot like a Cohen Brother's film and I actually thought for years that it was. It isn't one of those pieces that seem to be so popular these days where the screenwriters and directors are trying to compete against their peers and impress the Academy Awards voters as well as the plethora of other coveted statues gathering dust on the winners bowling trophy shelves. It isn't one of those shades of brown buried plots where the viewer keeps watching expecting to be rewarded with answers only to find they have just wasted their precious quality time after putting in their 40+ hours earning wages that make those aforementioned folks laugh. The only issue i have with this movie as well as most others is a person never remembers anything for 15 minutes or more after being knocked out. This fact caused a woman who killed many of her infants to be spending the rest of her life behind bars. I know, that fact doesn't work with the script but neither does 75% of the movie. I also wondered why the writers didn't take advantage of the perfect setup confusing "a murder " referring to the murder of crows hanging around the plane : "watch out, there's a murder up yonder". Especially after Hank was accused of using elitist verbiage.Other than that one would hope some of the Hollywood powers that be will sit up and take notice that a movie's success is not only box office dollars but DVD and repeated streaming numbers as well .... heck... lets include movies that are watched straight through to the credits as opposed to walking out/changing the feature far before then . Thanks for reading this review.

A little pricy, but I am happy with my purchase.For some reason the DVD freezes half way through, but if you skip a couple seconds it works again.Not too big of a deal.Thanks

Es ist schwierig einen Film zu beurteilen Aber für alle die nicht so auf "Kracher" aus sind und denoch Spannung lieben. Recht feine Charaktere - Zeichnung und ich Stufe ihn als Drama ein.

Un bon film, que mon père adore. Il en parle dans la vie de tous les jours... quand qqch se complique...Il dit "tu parles d'un plan simple"...Alors je lui ai acheté !

Thank You for the quick postal service, and the very good condition of the DVD and DVD CaseThis film is about three men finding a very large amount of money and the effects this money has on there lives

I saw the movie years ago and the story still draws you in.