Bill Paxton’s final on-screen role is released into theaters this week with The Circle. Starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson, the film is a tech thriller in the vein of The Net and Antitrust and is based on a novel by Dave Eggers. Word on the film has been mixed thus far, which is not surprising since Eggers’s work tends to range from the sublime (Where the Wild Things Are) to the disjointed (A Hologram for the King).
Nonetheless, the film will allow audiences to bid one final goodbye to one of the most solid actors the movies has ever known. The loss of Paxton was felt by many a film lover, who could always count on his playfulness and dependability as an actor. In celebration of his final performance, and of the man in general, no film of Paxton’s was worth revisiting more than the exquisitely flawless 1998 thriller A Simple Plan.
Directed by Sam Raimi from Scott Smith’s acclaimed bestselling novel, A Simple Plan takes place in a small town in early winter. When Hank (Paxton) goes out hunting with his younger brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob’s friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), the three stumble upon a snow-covered plane with a dead pilot inside and a duffel bag containing millions of dollars. While Lou insists they take the money and run and Jacob is ecstatic, good guy Hank wants to contact the authorities, despite the other two’s objections. The trio finally agree that Hank will hold onto the money for 6 months until the pilot is found and everyone is sure no one will come looking for the cash. When Hank tells his pregnant wife Sarah (Bridget Fonda) about the events and the group’s plan, she agrees. It isn’t long, however, before alliances are tested, trusts are betrayed and everyone’s life falls into danger.
A Simple Plan is a thriller in every sense of the word, encompassing all of what makes the genre such an exciting form of storytelling. The mere premise of the film alone instantly hooks audiences with all the many possibilities within it, most of which are explored. What makes the film truly effective, is that it delivers its suspense in the most subtle of ways. A Simple Plan is a film where the tiniest of details can signal doom. The expectation of a phone call, a dark shadow sitting in the passenger side of a parked car, an approaching vehicle from down the road, all have the ability to spell death.
At the same time, A Simple Plan is also incredibly psychological with its thrills, particularly on Hank’s part. Throughout the course of the film, questions such as: who can be trusted, who is planning what move, and most importantly, how is this all going to end, mount up in Hank’s head to truly maddening effect. When the two are combined, as they oftentimes are here, the results elevate A Simple Plan to an even higher level of suspense than many would have first assumed.
What’s most surprising about A Simple Plan is not the twists and turns it takes its characters and audience through, but rather how it ends up being a truly thoughtful American film. At the heart of A Simple Plan is a deep and stark comment on family and the quest for the American Dream. Raimi’s film brilliantly illustrates the dark power of that dream; the promise it brings and the image it projects, which its characters readily subscribe to and relentlessly pursue when discovering what they consider to be their lone chance at achieving it. A Simple Plan shows the cost of that dream and its ability to destroy.
Meanwhile, A Simple Plan also functions as a tale of two brothers whose lives took completely different paths. In Hank, there is someone who, for all intents and purposes, has it all: a small, but sturdy career, a loving wife, a home of his own and a baby on the way. While Hank would love to give his family more than he currently is, he is satisfied and he is content. Jacob on the other hand, lives a life full of envy and guilt towards Hank stemming from his own failures, both personally and professionally. He’s jealous that Hank’s small life is something that’s beyond his reach, as far as he’s concerned. Yet he also feels guilty at resenting the life his brother has worked so hard for. All Jacob has ever wanted was a life he would be proud to call his own, while Hank feels his own guilt that Jacob’s life greatly pales in comparison to his. The events in A Simple Plan prove to be the perfect catalyst for the two brothers to confront one another and how they each got to where they are today.
In a rare leading man role, Paxton carries the film effortlessly. He’s able to acquit himself well in A Simple Plan’s moments of tension, while also tapping into the familial pathos at the core. Fonda meanwhile makes for a magnetic reincarnation of Lady Macbeth, walking a fine line between Sarah’s desperation and her good-natured intentions. Finally, Thornton is heartbreaking as a man’s whose stuntedness has left him damaged and somewhat isolated. The way he channels Jacob’s internal pain and lost wishes results in the best work the actor ever managed on screen. Meanwhile, supporting turns from Briscoe, Chelcie Ross as the local sheriff and Gary Cole as an FBI agent, keep the suspense mounting.
A Simple Plan was not the box-office hit that it rightfully should have been, with the film barely recouping its production costs. What it lacked in audience praise, it more than made up for in critical acclaim when the film popped up on virtually every major critic’s end-of-year top 10 list. Thornton and Smith (who adapted his own novel for the screen) also basked in the glow of accolades winning a slew of awards for their contributions to the movie, including Oscar nods for Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.
If A Simple Plan doesn’t feel like a typical Sam Raimi film, that’s because the director made it during a period in his career when he was feeling highly experimental and wanting to prove his versatility as a filmmaker who was more than the genre he had helped to revolutionize. This was definitely evident with the previous year’s Sharon Stone western The Quick and the Dead (a flop now worthy of praise), the following year’s Kevin Costner baseball drama For Love of the Game and the eternally-unsung supernatural mystery The Gift. Raimi certainly was eager to show the film world that he was more than just a modern-day master of horror and took great pains to make his attempts visible. A Simple Plan is proof positive that he did not fail.
