A Simple Plan
The term "thriller" is bandied about for any movie with a car chase sequence these days, but any Hitchcock fan knows that the real thrills, the ones that freeze your blood and set your heart pounding, are psychological. Comparisons with Hitchcock are truly valid, as A Simple Plan relies more on character interaction than cheap surprise tactics to build suspense. When there is violence, it is highlighted and therefore all the more shocking.
Like vintage Hitchcock, A Simple Plan starts with an Everyman who slowly descends into madness. Bill Paxton nails the tone flat as Hank Mitchell, a well-liked man with a decent job, a pregnant wife and a firm standing in his little Wisconsin community. He's the kind of character you immediately identify with, and thus are you drawn into his crime.
Hank, his intellectually fuzzy brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's boozing friend Lou stumble across a downed plane in the snowy woods, and discover a gym bag filled with 4.4 million dollars in 100 dollar bills. What to do? What would you do? Obviously, your first instinct is to take it, but you know 4.4 million dollars doesn't get lost without someone coming to look for it. But it's probably drug money, right? It couldn't hurt to stash it and wait till spring to see if anyone comes looking. And if they do, you can burn it up. No evidence, no crime.
Sounds reasonable, right? That's the problem, and that's the brilliance of this movie. The choices Hank makes as his simple plan begins to slowly unravel may not always be the choices you would make, but they seem plausible enough in the beginning to make you empathize. As Hank paints himself into a corner with increasingly limited choices that are terrible in their seeming inevitability, you are simultaneously repelled and sympathetic.
Billy Bob Thornton turns in an Oscar-worthy performance as Jacob, who it turns out is not as dim-witted as you might first think, although he does make mistakes that put your heart in your throat. As the three men load the money into Lou's truck, a cop pulls up the snow-choked road to see if they are having car trouble; as Hank tries to smooth things over, Jacob mentions that he heard a plane go over.
Every role is perfect. Bridget Fonda is flawless as Hank's wife and co-conspirator, her pregnancy adding desperation and pathos to her sudden greed; Brent Briscoe is impeccable as the desperate drunkard Lou who adds another element of chaos and unpredictability to the mix. Murders, double-crosses, heartbreaking decisions, the performances, the screenplay, the direction, the cinematography of Wisconsin's chilly fields buckled under the fist of winter - there is nothing this movie does not do with intelligence and an eye toward heightening the tension.
Tension is what this film is all about. My chest started tightening in the first ten minutes and literally didn't let up for the length of the film. Rarely does a movie elicit such a visceral response from the audience. Be forewarned - A Simple Plan is not for those with pacemakers or high blood pressure. Intense is hardly the word. I left the theatre dazed and shaken, and could not shake a feeling of dread for hours. While this makes A Simple Plan strange to recommend -it's not exactly fun to be in a cold sweat, gripping the theatre chair in a pre-heart-attack twitch for two hours - this film is undeniably a masterpiece of the genre. Indifference is impossible, and what higher compliment of art is there?
- Jared O'Connor
MOVIES
All Content © 1997, 1998 Jared O'Connor and Michael Baker