Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

PresidentForLife I can't understand the ecstatic reviews. This movie looks good but is hampered by unsympathetic characters doing foolish things. Why does Hank confide in his brother, a known loose cannon who can't keep a secret? Why don't they just split the money up in the first place and go their separate ways? Yes, the dramatic tension increases in the second half of this overlong movie, but two hours is more than is needed to tell this tale. The most interesting character is Hank's wife Sarah, who for some reason turns out to be the criminal mastermind of the bunch. And of course who can forget Gary Cole as the fake FBI guy they basically just hand everything over to despite Sarah's prescient warning. Even the sheriff himself didn't ask to see the FBI badge! The action is just too random and illogical to add up to a good plot.

Brighton Dude This is a well directed, scripted and acted good solid thriller. If you are in the mood to be entertained for a couple of hours then this will be the ticket.It isn't innovative or genre-redefining or anything like that. It is a conservative film in many ways but although I love innovative cinema sometimes you just want the honest entertainment that you have here.This has some great twists and turns. It plays on the emotions very cleverly. It does deliver on the thrills.

Robert J. Maxwell Not a comedy.The media are filled with a successful multi-million dollar hostage ransom. A light airplane carrying four and a half million dollars of ransom crashes in a remote snow-covered forest in the northern Midwest. The pilot is killed. Three local friends -- the clever and educated Bill Paxton, the nice but slightly deranged Billy Bob Thornton, and the good-natured but capricious Brent Briscoe -- watch the plane disappear into the snow-laden trees. Investigating, they take note of the fact that the pilot is dead, the airplane half buried, and the suitcase with the illegal ransom would provide each of the three with, let's see, roughly one and a third million dollars apiece. That's enough for Paxton to get the hell out of Prairie Hell, enough for his brother Billy Bob, to buy back the old family homestead and start farming again, and the hard-drinking Briscoe to -- well, who knows? Suitcase in hand, the three discuss what to do with the money. Of course they should turn it over to Carl, the local sheriff. And suppose the ransomers come looking for it. But then, that's a lot of money and maybe they should keep it. Of course these paper paupers can't spend any of it in Northwoodsville for obvious reasons. Maybe Paxton, the most mentally intact of the three, should take the fortune, bury it in his back yard for a while, then exhume it when things quiet down. The idea seems sound. And it's all so simple, except that the word, as used in the title, is ironic because it's not so simple at all.I won't describe in any detail how things begin to go wrong. (Some -- a fake FBI agent -- are implausible.) Paxton brings the money home to his wife, Fonda, who doesn't believe a word of his story until Paxton dumps four million in hundred-dollar bills all over the kitchen table. Aghast, she says return it at once. But upon thinking things over, as any normal person would, she begins to sensibly question and fill in some gaps in the simple plan. Not exactly Lady MacBeth but more like an Executive Secretary with a name like Marybelle MacBeth.You have to love the way some of the dialog is written. The law officer, Carl, has heard reports of a failing airplane and is politely asking people about it. Everyone in Pinestown knows Carl and he knows everyone else, a friendly guy who's a little hard to read. He visits Paxton's house and Paxton asks, "Hi, Carl, aren't you out chasing criminals?" "Maybe," says Carl affably. There are scenes, little gems, sprinkled along the narrative. In one incident, Paxton is carrying a recorder and trying to get Briscoe to confess to killing an innocent bystander by pouring a lot of liquor into Briscoe's glass while only sipping at his own. Thornton, aware, somewhere in the crepuscular recesses of his brain, of what's up but unwilling to unmask his brother, begins taunting Paxton for only pretending to drink. It's the kind of crabwise way we might interfere with another's plans while not being entirely committed to the interference. In any case, it works and leads to homicide.I won't go on about the plot. The dialog, as I've said, is well above average. We can feel pity for the dumb Thornton as he revels tearily in the fantasy of finding a wife, reestablishing the defunct family farm, with Paxton running the farm next door and coming over to visit so the two families can hug each other and the brothers can rock on the front porch, drinking and watching the moon. There are more sad than hopeful moments.There are deaths too, and realistically rendered though with no relish whatever. Nobody's head is blown off. It's a movie made for a mature audience.

sharky_55 The setting of rural snow-locked Minnesota is established early. Foxes and chickens of the land flash across the screen, much like the ill omen of the raven does later on when these simple lives come across a stash of 4.4 million. Hank and his dimwitted brother Jacob and friend Lou set off into the snow to hunt for this fox. It is a shame that there is not a greater sense of community instilled into the setting as a small rural town would have, because we then have to rely on the performance of Paxton and the words of his wife when she says that he is a good man, and no one would ever believe him to be a murderer. The actors do a great deal of the lifting. There is natural conflict between their demeanours, and that is escalated when they come across the crash site. We are led to believe that Hank is a man of good moral standing and virtue. Not many would say no to millions, but he initially does, and has to be coaxed. His wife also does, giggling at what is a clearly impossible occurrence and adamantly stating that it would be stealing and the wrong thing to do. Their life is fine, and comfortable. Later on, her teary eyed monologue demolishes that notion, but the great strength of these characters is that we are able to sympathise and understand both scenarios and their merits, and how money has twisted their expectations. Fonda's performance is fantastic; almost as soon as she sets sight on the pile of cash, the gears begin to turn in her head and she descends into a path of action that will leave her family for the better. Hank lets the air out of a tire with a cheeky smile, and the brothers chuckle at their little deception, not even considering what they will be capable of later. The other great performance belongs to Billy Bob Thornton, whom is initially regarded as dumb and incompetent by both audience and older brother. He blurts out guilty clues and in panic whacks a man in the head, but unlike Hank, these acts aren't cold and calculated, but acts of desperation and motivation to protect his brother (who by all accounts shares no sincere feelings of affection, but only a last name). In one confrontation, there are two levels of pretense happening, the drunken ramblings of Lou, and the battle between the two brothers as they argue over the morality of framing him for the murder, and it becomes a tense see-sawing of his affiliation. Hank tries to appeal by bringing up their deceased father, and Jacob brusquely and rightfully shuts him down. In a later moment, he soberly reminisces on a a prank played on him by his high school 'girlfriend' (and again we see how out of touch Hank is with his brother) and Jacob makes it heartbreaking because of how easy he seems to take it, and how there are no hard feelings. Thornton is much like his dog; loyal, and sometimes dumb, but it is via the good of his heart. And we see in this monologue just how little he lives for, and that gives us a little solace when his end comes. The Coens gave tips to Raimi on how to film in the snow, based on their experiences with Fargo. They are similar in many ways; both are about the greed and desire for monetary wealth, and how it warps people into doing despicable things. It is not as perfect as Fargo; in the latter the snowy setting is a character in itself, tripping and hindering and being admired all at the same time. The closest A Simple Plan gets would be the shot of the four diverging footprint paths in the snow, which signalled ominous danger up ahead. When has splitting up ever been a good idea? And I think in the tensest scene in the office, where a pleading Fonda on the phone offers no comfort as Hank is trapped in between two unsuspecting people, with guns. The best thing this film does is shepherded us alongside these characters, because no one can resist the allure of so much money. We yell and become frustrated when Jacob gives away the sighting of the plane, and shake our heads as the murders pile up, but still hope that the money remains unscathed, even as the family is corrupted. There is a real life parallel to this, in the alarming occurrence of lottery winners being bankrupt a few years on. How peaceful would their lives have been if that plane had never been uncovered? The damning of Hank and Sarah is so great that I do not think the script needs to further deal a cruel blow to them, by revealing that the bills were indeed marked (in addition to the logical explanation of this being so ridiculously and logistically impossible - how the hell does writing down thousands of serial numbers enable you to track bills). They have been punished enough, and dealt a harsh lesson.