FauxNixon

The story begins as simply as the title, A Simple Plan, would imply: two brothers, Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton) and Jacob Mitchell (Billy Bob Thornton), along with Jacob’s best friend Lou Chambers (Brent Briscoe) find a crashed plane in the woods and inside a large sum of money in cash.  Lou and Jacob are both of less-than-stellar intelligence and Hank is trapped in what he perceives as a boring life, working a blue collar job at a rural feed store as a clerk, hoping one day that the owner will die and give it to him.

They devise, what they believe to be a simple plan to keep the money: they will take the money and hide it at Hank’s house, under his supervision.  They will not mention the crashed plane or the money to anyone, including their wives, and if in six months or a year, no one has come forward, they will split the money three ways and leave town to live off of it without fear of reprisal or criminal prosecution.

Of course, this simple plan doesn’t work and the story grows increasingly complex.  The first flaw is that the first thing that Hank does when he comes home is to show his wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) the money and explain the plan they had devised.  Sarah insists Hank and Jacob must go back the next day and clear any paths or tracks that may remain, and more importantly, return a lot of the money to the plane to reduce suspicion if someone else discovers it and reports it.

While doing this, a farmer comes across Jacob, who is keeping watch, and Jacob panics and attacks the farmer.  Hank decides he has to cover up the crime and takes what he believes to be the dead body on the farmer’s snowmobile to a bridge to dump the body and make the death look like an accident.  When the farmer awakens, much to Hank’s surprise, Hank suffocates him, and this is just the first of the many twists and turns that take place and the tragedy that this found money brings to this group of people, including many of their deaths.

Director Sam Raimi’s film is effective and enthralling.  The narrative is well-told, the film is very well cast, the actors are all superb and giving up great performances and the story, despite its twists and turns, is frighteningly and tragically realistic and believable.  This is a definite must-see.