Review of A Simple Plan (1998) by Anthony T — 12 May 2016

A Simple Plan was recommended to me on Reddit during a Bill Paxton appreciation thread. Several people were discussing it and apparently it had extremely high ratings from both critics and the general public yet I hadn't even heard of it. Now that I've seen it, I can say the movie was pretty good albeit very strange.

A Simple Plan was not strange due to the type of film but the choices that we're made in the story. Bill Paxton's character is going to be pretty easy to figure out. He's easily relatable and the choices he makes were often times the same that I would have chosen. That's not to say they were right but in certain situations you've gotta do what you've gotta do. The same goes for Billy Bob Thornton's character. I was completely wrong about what kind of person he would turn out to be. His character was probably the most interesting among a cast of outlandish individuals. There was one particular person in this film that will go unnamed in this review as it would spoil the surprise but wow.. did they ever become something else. If you're not paying attention you could easily miss who is truly good, and who you should watch out for.

This film was entirely about suspicion, deceit, morality and audience participation. By that I mean this film is not one that you passively watch and then forget about. You will choose along with the characters what is right and what is wrong and it may inspire debate if you're watching it with other people. I loved that about this movie as it shows how strong the writing and performances were. That's not to say the story was perfect however. There were several points in the film where the story was progressed through pure stupidity. There were several shortcuts taken in the form of obvious bad decision making and it really showed at points. Those were the only moments where I wasn't enjoying the film. For the rest of it, once you get past the odd opening and you embrace the late 90's Lifetime movie vibe, you'll likely have a very good time with this film. A Simple Plan is not the masterpiece that Reddit thread suggested it would be, but it is still an excellent drama with plenty of genuine thrills along the way.