Review of A Simple Plan (1998) by James M — 27 Nov 2009

As a masssive fan of clever American thrillers and morality tales this was the film for me. The only Sam Raimi films I've ever seen are the first two Spiderman efforts and both of them were quite breathtaking, so I knew he had a skill with with fast pace and effects.

Yet this was totally different in style as the pace was actually quite slow and there weren't any big SFX. This worried me at the start of the film yet I soon realised I had nothing to worry about as it was very atmospheric and masterful.

The performances from both leads are strong. Bill Paxton gives a quiet and reflective performance in a well written everyman role and Billy Bob Thornton is creepy and low key an also gives more emotional depth to his well drawn and quite sad character.

Now there are flaws as sometimes and especially during one scene after a very tense few tense momets there is one quite gory and really over the top use of a shotgun and towards the end the film slips into genre cliche slightly. Yet on the whole this is a thought provoking and quietly chilling thriller with a nicely disjointed score from Danny Elfman, strong performances and fantastic direction from Sam Raimi who creates a real isolated sense of place and shows himself to be a truly versatile director. Great stuff and quite a treat for fans of the genre.