| 100 |
Washington Post
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.
|
| 100 |
Washington Post
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.
|
| 100 |
Entertainment Weekly
Lean, elegant, and emotionally complex -- a marvel of backwoods classicism.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Sun-Times
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.
|
| 100 |
LA Weekly
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.
|
| 90 |
New Times (L.A.)
Money Can't Buy You Happiness. It hasn't been this vividly re-examined in decades, and we're the richer for it.
|
| 90 |
Film.com
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.
|
| 90 |
Salon.com
Holds us in a state of horrified empathy.
|
| 90 |
The New York Times
When you get the shivers watching this wintry tale unfold, it won't be from the cold.
|
| 90 |
Village Voice
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.
|
| 88 |
New York Daily News
It's a Master "Plan."
|
| 88 |
ReelViews
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.
|
| 88 |
Chicago Tribune
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]
|
| 88 |
USA Today
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.
|
| 80 |
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.
|
| 80 |
Film.com
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.
|
| 80 |
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.
|
| 80 |
Film Threat
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.
|
| 80 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Joshua Klein
Both simplifies and brings into focus the already simple and effective thriller.
|
| 78 |
Austin Chronicle
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.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
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.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
[Raimi]'s drawn lovely, complex performances from Paxton and Thornton and proven that he can work effectively -- and movingly -- in a minor emotional key.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Examiner
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.
|
| 70 |
TV Guide
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.
|
| 60 |
Newsweek
There's something decidedly mechanical about this intermittently gripping movie's bleak view of human nature.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
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.
|
| 50 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
But the stuff looks like what it is -- trite imagery grafted over the narrative barrens, like a bad weave on a balding pate.
|
| 30 |
Time
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?"
|
