Simple Plan delivers superb acting, surprising plot

If you found a gym bag filled with a million dollars in cash, would you take it? Is there such a thing as easy money? What really is the American Dream?

These questions and more are examined in the new Paramount release A Simple Plan.

The film stars Bill Paxton (Apollo 13, Twister), Billy Bob Thornton (Slingblade, Armageddon) and Bridget Fonda (Point of No Return, Jackie Brown). Paxton plays Hank Mitchell, an average guy with a good life in a small town. He has a decent job, a loving wife, lots of friends and his first child. But in an instant, it all changes.

Hank, along with his brother Jacob (Thornton) and mutual friend Lou (Brent Brisco), discover a crashed airplane in a snowy forest. Inside the plane they find a dead pilot and a gym bag filled with four million dollars. Hank's first thought is to turn it in to the police. However, Jacob and Lou, both down on their luck, want the money for themselves. So Hank comes up with a simple plan; hide the money until the spring, and if someone else finds the plane and asks about the money, they burn it. If no one inquires, the threesome will divide up the treasure and leave town.

It sounds simple, but they fail to see one major problem. How can someone just sit on four million dollars and wait for three months? Soon, each one starts to manipulate the others.

Director Sam Raimi (Army of Darkness, The Quick and the Dead) creates a tension that drives the audience, as well as the characters. Hank soon begins to do things that he never thought he would do, like kill. As the film weaves through multiple twists, the audience will wonder what will happen in the end and will no doubt be surprised. Thornton and Paxton give Oscar-caliber performances in Raimi's masterpiece of a must-see film.