A Simple Plan

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: December 11, 1998

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

81	METASCORE Universal acclaim based on 28 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

100

Stephen Hunter

But [Raimi]'s instructed his fabulous Style to take a hike, and, working from Scott Smith's brilliantly reconfigured script from Smith's own (much darker) novel, delivers a piece that is severe and disciplined in its evocation of the cold terrors of fate. Read full review

100

Michael O'Sullivan

With elegant, clockwork construction, Smith has transplanted his novel of greed, betrayal and getting what you deserve to the screen, where it is told by director Sam Raimi with a spareness befitting the whiteness of its snowed-in setting. Read full review

100

Owen Gleiberman

Lean, elegant, and emotionally complex -- a marvel of backwoods classicism. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

One of the year's best films for a lot of reasons, including its ability to involve the audience almost breathlessly in a story of mounting tragedy. Read full review

100

Manohla Dargis

In one of the sweetest ironies of the entire film year, Sam Raimi has made an A-movie with the soul of a B-movie classic. Read full review

Janet Maslin

When you get the shivers watching this wintry tale unfold, it won't be from the cold. Read full review

J. Hoberman

As straightforward in narrative as it is gut-wrenching in effect, A Simple Plan is a sort of slow-motion skid down an icy blacktop— it's a movie you watch with a mounting sense of dread...[It's] an extremely credible thriller and an affecting brother-story. Read full review

Charles Taylor

Holds us in a state of horrified empathy. Read full review

New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo

Money Can't Buy You Happiness. It hasn't been this vividly re-examined in decades, and we're the richer for it. Read full review

Film.comRobert Horton

An unleashed Raimi may be a more exciting moviemaker, but there's something to be said for the virtues of a good story well told, which describes A Simple Plan down to its last shivery snowflake.

Mark Caro

Generates genuine tension because it's propelled by actual human feeling, which, these days, turns out to be a surprisingly thrilling prospect. [11 Dec 1998]

Jami Bernard

It's a Master "Plan."

James Berardinelli

The characters are at the heart of A Simple Plan, and the gruesome complexity of their interaction elevates this film to the level of a midwinter treat. Read full review

Mike Clark

The plan in A Simple Plan grows exponentially complex once the first dollar is purloined, an act that makes this unpretentious parable one of the season's better 'what's-going-to-happen-next?' movies.

Joshua Klein

Both simplifies and brings into focus the already simple and effective thriller. Read full review

Ron Wells

Thornton's Jacob initially comes across as the love child of Elmer Fudd and Butthead, but ends up as the best role he's ever had. Read full review

Glen Lovell

The key differences are in emphasis and tone: “Fargo” is deadpan noir; A Simple Plan, with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton as Mutt and Jeff siblings, is a more robust Midwestern Gothic that owes as much to Poe as Chandler. Read full review

Jack Matthews

The role of Jacob is greatly expanded from the book, and the unsatisfying way that Smith and Raimi resolve the brothers' relationship in the movie is the only major change--major compromise--made in transporting the novel to the screen. Read full review

Film.comSean Means

What makes A Simple Plan an exciting, thoughtful thriller isn't the plot twists, but the twists and turns of Hank's tortured conscience as one lie leads to bigger and deadlier deceits.