Toronto has sure scored some good flicks for their festival this year and this is one of Father Geek's favorites, Sam Raimi does the Coen brothers and another great performance by Billy Bob to boot. I was lucky enough to catch this one a couple of weeks ago and beleive me its heavyduty drama that will freeze you to your seat. All of you folks at this festival remember to write us about the upcoming films because we're hot to get the word on Pleasantville, Antz, and all the others they've got lined up for you all to see over the next week or so.
Guy Incognito here and I just got back from the Toronto Film Festival Premiere of Sam "the REAL man" Raimi's film, A SIMPLE PLAN. I managed to snag tickets to the closing night gala which just happens to be "Antz" but they also threw in an extra gala ticket with the package. Nobody knew what the "bonus" movie was until about a week ago when they announced it was gonna be the new Raimi film which I'd heard so much about. Now Raimi is probably one of my favorite directors so this was a HUGE surprise for me and I literally couldn't wait to see it after the things I'd read. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.
I was waiting out in the lobby with my friends before the film knocking back a few brewskies when Sam walked by. Nobody seems to know what this guy looks like but I's seen him a lot on T.V. so I recognized him immediately and gave him a friendly nod to acknowledge his greatness. He seemed VERY nervous walking up the red carpet and into the theatre but he made up for that later when he addressed the crowd. When he was introduced, he came on-stage and immediately pulled a Three Stooges pratfall, pretending to trip and then he made his way to the podium. He then asked if anyone had lost a big wad of $20 bills with a rubber band backstage. A few people jokingly raised their hands and he replied, "I found the rubber band!" Everyone laughed and applauded but I was the only one who actually hooted and hollered, I got a REAL dirty, "How dare you" look from the guy next to me, but what the hell (Festival crowds, yuck). I mean, this is SAM RAIMI, man!!! He then introduced Billy Bob and Bill Paxton who then took the stage (to thunderous applause) and made some jokes. They both seemed like cool guys. Then the movie began.
This was a REAL departure for Raimi (as you know). No crazy camerawork, just solid directing, acting and writing. This movie will prove to people that Sam is able to get GREAT performances out of his leads. Sure, the movie isn't exactly exciting, but it's tense and you just come out of it feeling such pity for the characters.
I'm sure everyone knows the premise, Billy Bob and Bill play brothers that (along with a friend) discover a crashed plane with $4.4 million inside. Paxton offers to keep the money until things blow over and it's safe for them to spend it. Well, human nature and just plain stupidity get in the way and things go VERY wrong and a lot of people end up dead because of this "simple plan".
Billy Bob gives an Oscar-caliber performance here as Jacob, Paxton's seemingly dim-witted brother and Paxton, whom I've never considered to be much of an actor really impressed me.
A few of my friends didn't like this movie, saying that they couldn't believe some of the stupid things the characters did, but one of the guys I was with was from a small town and said he knew people EXACTLY like those in the film and said he could TOTALLY believe that they'd do those things.
The cinematography is gorgeous and no doubt people will be comparing this film to FARGO because of the snowy setting, but the thing that most impressed me was Sam's directing. Man, he's grown up, kinda like Tarantino did with Jackie Brown. He REALLY restrained himself here but maybe a little too much. Because the film was so acting-centered, I felt that at some times it needed a little spice from Raimi's camera coolness. There were plenty of opportunities for it and I felt like standing up sometimes and screaming for some hyper camera angles, but hey I can't complain. I LOVED Raimi before but I feel this movie will really make people take notice of his directing talents and hopefully he'll get the respect he deserves. It was kinda like seeing Schindler's List and saying, "I can't believe Spielberg could do something like this." Seeing Sam doing his pratfalls and knowing what kind of silly zaniness he's capable of, this film really took me by surprise. Though it's definitely not for everyone and I can't say it'll do great business at the box-office, everything about this film is so well done that it's be hard to come out of it saying it's a bad movie. The talent at work here is undeniable and I think (I HOPE) it will further Sam career as a director. It's great to see him doing movies again and it was great to finally see my directing idol in real life. Congratulations to everyone involved, A SIMPLE PLAN is a very good movie.
