A Simple Plan, 1998.
Directed by Sam Raimi.
Starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, Bridget Fonda, and Brent Criscoe.
SYNOPSIS:
Sam Raimi’s 1998 minor classic A Simple Plan gets its 4K Ultra HD debut (and, I believe, Blu-ray debut too, in a separate release) from Arrow Video. It’s a bummer that current interviews weren’t shot for this one (I realize Bill Paxton is dead and Bridget Fonda has retired from acting), but the extras found here are a pretty good look back on the movie. I think fans will be happy with this one.
A Simple Plan is a simple story, but like all great simple stories, it digs deep into what makes us human and the myriad ways we can fuck up even what seem to be the simplest situations. Of course, money is the cause of so many of those problems, as it is here in director Sam Raimi’s 1998 movie, based on the 1993 novel by Scott B. Smith, who also wrote the screenplay.
Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton play Hank and Jacob Mitchell, respectively, two brothers who are very different from each other. Hank is an accountant married to Sarah (Bridget Fonda), who’s expecting their first baby, while Jacob is dim-witted and mostly works menial jobs, spending much of his off-time with his buddy Lou (Brent Briscoe).
The three men are headed to the woods on a day off when they come across a small crashed plane with a dead pilot and $4.4 million in $100 bills inside. Hank wants to immediately inform the police about their find, but Jacob and Lou talk him into a deal: they will hide the money somewhere for a few months and then split it three ways once they feel it’s safe to do so.
It’s a simple plan, right? Hank lets his wife Sarah know about the money, despite promising not to, and she helps him deal with the authorities, including Sheriff Carl Jenkins (Chelcie Ross), when they start asking questions.
The situation begins to veer off the road when Sarah tells Hank to put some of the money back in the plane, since they both know it will be found and if some of the money is there when it is, maybe there won’t be any suspicion placed on them.
But when Hank and Jacob do so and a potential witness ends up dead, that simple plan heads straight into a ditch and more people will die by the end of the film. You can pick apart a movie like this in some ways, but, overall, the plot feels believable to me and the characters’ actions are plausible. In the end, this is a taut story with an anxiety-inducing climax in which there really aren’t any winners and losers.
A Simple Plan has been considered a minor classic since its 1998 release, and now Arrow Video has brought it to 4K Ultra HD in a new edition featuring a 4K remaster and some new bonus features. I don’t have any previous home video copies of this movie, so I’m not sure if any legacy extras were left out.
On the 4K video front, I was overall pretty happy with the picture quality. There were some fleeting moments where the grain seemed a bit excessive, or the image was a little softer than expected, but I was fine with it in general. As always, your mileage may vary.
As for the bonus features:
• Two audio commentaries: One track features moderator Justin Beahm conducting a discussion with production designer Patrizia von Brandensteim and the other serves up film critics Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme chatting about the movie. The tracks are pretty much complementary, as the former gets into the nuts-and-bolts of the making of the movie (with a focus on the design, of course) and the latter gives a more holistic view.
• Of Ice and Men (8:18): The Of Mice and Men reference was an obvious go-to with the bonus feature titles, and it shows up in the first extra, an interview with director of photography Alar Kivilo. He talks about how he joined the production as well as his approach to shooting wintry, desolate landscapes.
• Standing Her Ground (6:23) Becky Ann Baker discusses her role as Nancy Chambers, wife of ne’er-do-well Lou Chambers and a hardworking woman who unfortunately gets pulled in as that simple plan unravels.
• Dead of Winter (10:45): Chelcie Ross chats about playing the sheriff, another character who is just trying to live their life before getting sucked in.
• On-Set Interviews: Running a little over 17 minutes total, this extra features interviews with Paxton, Thornton, Fonda, Raimi, and producer James Jacks while the film was being made. The discussions are typical of the EPK-style material produced back then. It’s a shame current interviews couldn’t be conducted, but I realize Paxton and Jacks have both died.
• Behind the Scenes (6:49): Another holdover from the old days, this featurette serves up some on-set footage as the movie was being made.
The theatrical trailer rounds out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
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