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Reviews
A Simple Plan (1998)
So you dreamed of finding a million dollars...
How many of us have imagined what we would do if we ever found a million dollars? Would we buy a Porsche and a big new house? Would we put it in the bank and live off of the interest? I would say that the vast majority of us have pondered over that one from time to time. But how far would we go to protect what we found from being taken away from us? That's the question asked by "A Simple Plan".
At first it seems like a tale of three lucky guys who find "the American dream", in Lou's words. But very quickly the film takes on a feeling of paranoia, mistrust, and later in the film, a profound sadness toward the desperate situation in which the characters find themselves. Finally, there is a real sense of horror. Not the grossed-out, unrealistic horror of "Friday the 13th" or "A Nightmare on Elm Street", but a different kind of horror that is not often captured on film. That horror lies in the fact that the characters in the story are regular people. They aren't evil, spiteful villains. They're your next door neighbor. They're the people you see at the store every day. They're you and me. Yet because of their actions, good people end up dead.
We must ask ourselves whether we would really do the right thing and turn the money in or keep it if we could find a way to rationalize, just like the characters in the story. And the fact is that many of us, but not all of course, certainly would try to find a way to keep it. That's real. And it lends to the believability of the story.
One other point made by the movie that I don't think many have touched on is that people are not always who they seem. When they first find the money, Jacob, who is dim-witted and seemingly irresponsible, won't hear of turning in the money and is immediately seduced by what he might be able to do with it. But when the coverups begin and as people begin to die, he feels a deep sense of guilt and wants to give it all up to get it off of his conscience. On the other hand, you have Hank, who has a job and a family and seems to be a morally upstanding and responsible citizen. His first instinct is to call the police and turn in the money. But as soon as he finds a rationale for keeping the money, his morals begin to slide. The more wrong the plan goes, the more desperate he is to cover it all up, perhaps to maintain his falsely moral image as much as to keep the money. Ultimately his greed consumes him to the point of murdering his own brother. It goes to show that our real self may be completely different than our public self.
This is definitely one of the best tragedy films in quite some time. Watch it.
The Crossing (2000)
The amazingly talented Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels' acting really holds you spellbound in this movie. Who else can play George Washington, Lawrence Chamberlain (in "Gettysburg"), and still be funny in "Dumb and Dumber"? In the making of "The Crossing" which was shown afterwards, they interviewed him about playing the part of Washington, and I was really impressed with how much research he had done for the movie.