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

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]

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

Jami Bernard

It's a Master "Plan."

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

Jonathan Rosenbaum

The script dawdles, and in spite of a good cast--Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton (who's especially resourceful), Bridget Fonda, and Brent Briscoe--the movie tends to amble around its points rather than drive straight toward the heart of the matter. 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

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

Rick Groen

But the stuff looks like what it is -- trite imagery grafted over the narrative barrens, like a bad weave on a balding pate. Read full review

David Ansen

There's something decidedly mechanical about this intermittently gripping movie's bleak view of human nature. Read full review

Charles Taylor

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

Joshua Klein

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

David Sterritt

Sensitive performances and intelligent storytelling keep the sometimes-violent tale involving from start to finish, marking a giant step for director Raimi, previously known for action stories and over-the-top fantasies. Read full review

Marc Savlov

It's not perfect -- Thornton's slack-jawed yokel Jacob is played a bit wide of the mark and Fonda continues to irk in some indefinable way -- but it's a revelation for longtime Raimi fans. And it's a hell of a ride too, for both Raimi fans and newcomers alike. Read full review

Richard Schickel

There's neither intricacy nor surprise in the narrative, and these dopes are tedious, witless company. Mostly you find yourself thinking, "How long until dinner?" 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

Edward Guthmann

[Raimi]'s drawn lovely, complex performances from Paxton and Thornton and proven that he can work effectively -- and movingly -- in a minor emotional key. 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

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

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

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.

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.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.

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.

Walter Addiego

Works a familiar mine and produces more than a few nuggets. It's a good tonic, if one's still needed, for '80s-style cynicism: Greed is not good. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh

Their downward spiral is like a slow-motion highway pileup: You might think you don't want to watch, but you can't tear your eyes away. Read full review