A SIMPLE PLAN is one of the most overrated films of all time. The fact that some actually view this film as a serious piece of film-making is truly amazing. Everything about this film is artificial: the characters, the acting, the plot, etc. Usually, genre films can get away with such an artificial feel because they mostly deal with things that don't necessarily exist in real life (zombies, monsters, deformed superheroes, etc) but when you transpose the same techniques used in genre films and apply them to actual human beings living in reality, well, the thing becomes forced and artificial. And this is what the folks responsible for this film, whom have experience in making mostly genre films, have done here. I didn't believe this story for one second throughout the entire film. The characters were amazingly stupid. The "McGuffin" story was uninspired and filled with plot-holes so big that you can fly a jumbo jet through them. And the acting, except for BBT, was unconvincing, certainly Paxton and Fonda playing a couple. Talk about zero chemistry.
But what's really annoying about A SIMPLE PLAN is that it's supposed to be a tragedy of sorts and yet the filmmakers obviously didn't want to make the film too gloomy and depressing as to turn off most of the audience. The end product is saddled with a conflicting and contradicting style/tone. It plays like a harmless & bland TV movie, and yet it strives to be John Sayles or Terence Mallick kind of film with its monolithic seriousness.
There's only one word to describe A SIMPLE PLAN: labored.
But what's really annoying about A SIMPLE PLAN is that it's supposed to be a tragedy of sorts and yet the filmmakers obviously didn't want to make the film too gloomy and depressing as to turn off most of the audience. The end product is saddled with a conflicting and contradicting style/tone. It plays like a harmless & bland TV movie, and yet it strives to be John Sayles or Terence Mallick kind of film with its monolithic seriousness.
There's only one word to describe A SIMPLE PLAN: labored.