A Simple Plan

Starring Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda, and Billy Bob Thornton. Directed by Sam Raimi.

Three men find a gym bag filled with over $4 Million in a crashed plane in the middle of the woods. They formulate a plan to keep the money if no one comes looking for it. As time passes the three become shaky in their bond as mistrust, murder and greed consume them. In the end, the men find that while $4million of free money sounds like an easy path to the American dream, it may just ruin their lives forever.

This is a great movie. It's a dark drama that is full of violence, both physical and emotional. Paxton, Thornton, and Fonda all give high-caliber performances. Bridget Fonda is really despicable, which always impresses me.

The tough thing about this movie is that it's kind of slow-going and depressing, but that's true of many movies that I enjoy.

Ultimately, this is a good movie to watch maybe every other year.

Incredibly slow moving, but as moralistic a tale as they come. Actions lead to consequences, and greed may have the most fatal consequence of all.

The acting was spot-on, and I liked that the author of the (also viciously slow) book did the screenplay. This was directed by Sam Raimi - of Spiderman fame. Hmm... two extremes of the spectrum, I think! Honestly, the slowness of the film hypnotizes you until the events that transpire seem that much more shocking.

My only complaint would be that I didn't really care about any of the characters. I understood their motivations - money is a powerful incentive to do just about anything - but I didn't genuinely like any of them. Bridget Fonda was a shrew, and Billy Bob's schtick as the slow-witted brother didn't inspire compassion. However, if the characters had been any more sympathetic than they were, we might have been more disappointed when people started dying.

Oops. Spoiler alert.