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Simple Plan, A
Universal acclaim
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Scott B. Smith (also novel)
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 11, 1998
DVD: June 22, 1999
Running Time: 121 minutes, Color
Origin: France / Germany / Japan / UK / USA
Summary
RATING: R for violence and language
Starring Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, Billy Bob Thornton, Brent Briscoe, Jack Walsh, Chelcie Ross, Becky Ann Baker, and Gary Cole
Captivated by the lure of sudden wealth, the quiet rural lives of two brothers (Paxton, Thornton) erupt into conflicts of greed, paranoia and distrust when over four million dollars in cash is discovered at the remote site of a downed small airplane. (Paramount Pictures)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Drag Me to Hell The Quick and the Dead
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
But [Raimi]'s instructed his fabulous Style to take a hike, and, working from Scott Smith's brilliantly reconfigured script from Smith's own (much darker) novel, delivers a piece that is severe and disciplined in its evocation of the cold terrors of fate.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
With elegant, clockwork construction, Smith has transplanted his novel of greed, betrayal and getting what you deserve to the screen, where it is told by director Sam Raimi with a spareness befitting the whiteness of its snowed-in setting.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Lean, elegant, and emotionally complex -- a marvel of backwoods classicism.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
One of the year's best films for a lot of reasons, including its ability to involve the audience almost breathlessly in a story of mounting tragedy.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
In one of the sweetest ironies of the entire film year, Sam Raimi has made an A-movie with the soul of a B-movie classic.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Bill Gallo
Money Can't Buy You Happiness. It hasn't been this vividly re-examined in decades, and we're the richer for it.
Read Full Review >Film.com Robert Horton
An unleashed Raimi may be a more exciting moviemaker, but there's something to be said for the virtues of a good story well told, which describes A Simple Plan down to its last shivery snowflake.
The New York Times Elvis Mitchell
When you get the shivers watching this wintry tale unfold, it won't be from the cold.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
As straightforward in narrative as it is gut-wrenching in effect, A Simple Plan is a sort of slow-motion skid down an icy blacktop— it's a movie you watch with a mounting sense of dread...[It's] an extremely credible thriller and an affecting brother-story.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
It's a Master "Plan."
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The characters are at the heart of A Simple Plan, and the gruesome complexity of their interaction elevates this film to the level of a midwinter treat.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Mark Caro
Generates genuine tension because it's propelled by actual human feeling, which, these days, turns out to be a surprisingly thrilling prospect. [11 Dec 1998]
USA Today Mike Clark
The plan in A Simple Plan grows exponentially complex once the first dollar is purloined, an act that makes this unpretentious parable one of the season's better 'what's-going-to-happen-next?' movies.
Los Angeles Times Jack Matthews
The role of Jacob is greatly expanded from the book, and the unsatisfying way that Smith and Raimi resolve the brothers' relationship in the movie is the only major change--major compromise--made in transporting the novel to the screen.
Read Full Review >Film.com Sean Means
What makes A Simple Plan an exciting, thoughtful thriller isn't the plot twists, but the twists and turns of Hank's tortured conscience as one lie leads to bigger and deadlier deceits.
Variety Glen Lovell
The key differences are in emphasis and tone: “Fargo” is deadpan noir; A Simple Plan, with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton as Mutt and Jeff siblings, is a more robust Midwestern Gothic that owes as much to Poe as Chandler.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Ron Wells
Thornton's Jacob initially comes across as the love child of Elmer Fudd and Butthead, but ends up as the best role he's ever had.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Joshua Klein
Both simplifies and brings into focus the already simple and effective thriller.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
It's not perfect -- Thornton's slack-jawed yokel Jacob is played a bit wide of the mark and Fonda continues to irk in some indefinable way -- but it's a revelation for longtime Raimi fans. And it's a hell of a ride too, for both Raimi fans and newcomers alike.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Sensitive performances and intelligent storytelling keep the sometimes-violent tale involving from start to finish, marking a giant step for director Raimi, previously known for action stories and over-the-top fantasies.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
[Raimi]'s drawn lovely, complex performances from Paxton and Thornton and proven that he can work effectively -- and movingly -- in a minor emotional key.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Walter Addiego
Works a familiar mine and produces more than a few nuggets. It's a good tonic, if one's still needed, for '80s-style cynicism: Greed is not good.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Their downward spiral is like a slow-motion highway pileup: You might think you don't want to watch, but you can't tear your eyes away.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
There's something decidedly mechanical about this intermittently gripping movie's bleak view of human nature.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
The script dawdles, and in spite of a good cast--Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton (who's especially resourceful), Bridget Fonda, and Brent Briscoe--the movie tends to amble around its points rather than drive straight toward the heart of the matter.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
But the stuff looks like what it is -- trite imagery grafted over the narrative barrens, like a bad weave on a balding pate.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
There's neither intricacy nor surprise in the narrative, and these dopes are tedious, witless company. Mostly you find yourself thinking, "How long until dinner?"
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Patrick Dunne gave it a10:
This is vertainly not a "feel good" film, but it certainlly is Raimi's best. His goal for Spiderman 2 was drama, but he already achieved it here.
Gabor A. gave it a 6:
Well made film, but didn't add enough new ideas to an ancient theme of both literature and film. suspense is not as thrilling when you've experienced similar situations in other works.
Look up "cautionary tale" in the dictionary and this film should be named. The story documents what happens when honesty is not instinctive. Like a hit & run accident, once you run you can't simply return and avoid the consequences. The characters are trapped in their initially innocent indiscretion as its implications magnify into a vast and all-encompassing doom. Filmed in the gunmetal color of a lonely winter, the artistry of the film confirms that there is a moral winter as well, and both threaten to never end. In terms of implementing the storys' vision, the entire cast is on board. While the story does not need one, its breadth would be greater if a more righteous character was integral to the plot, but at face value and in its art, the presentation asserts that no such person moves in the circles these people frequent. We are abandoned with the lonely feeling that it is not only money but social corruption that falls from the sky onto the unwary. This movie suffers only in that no character ever really gets it. They are living a tragedy of Shakespearian proportions, but there is no soliloquy, no tangential admission such as "Always tell the truth - there's less to remember," just a vague and unenlightened Aw Shucks regret. One suspects, should the opportunity for aggrandizement repeat itself, that the lesson has not been learned - the decay is just too deep. It might be a more palatible film if it warned you to not stick your hand in the fire, but it simply grabs it and sticks it in there, then tip-toes away, leaving you to figure out what you should do in the future.
Pitu G. gave it a 10:
EXCELLELNT! this movie is in my all time best list. If there is a movie you need to watch is this one. superb!
Yoon C. gave it an 8:
Perhaps Raimi's best, a cautionary tale about money and how greed takes on a life of its own. Has wicked sense of irony throughout, and truly suspenseful and scary ending.
Darkmage gave it a 10:
If you missed this little known flick, you missed one of the few GOOD movies in the last 5 years. A truly dark film full of important messages about family and the true value of money. It is truly shocking to watch and learn how fast the lure of wealth can change everyone around you. Great camera work, effective sound and good use of imagery.
