I Have Changed My Mind

So we finished watching A Simple Plan today, and yesterday I made a post criticizing some of the film. But I must admit that in part, I was wrong. This movie is still not my favorite of the year but I will go from degrading it to praising it, to a point.

The most powerful scene in the movie is undoubtedly to me when Hank and Jacob are talking after the fake FBI Agent and Carl were killed. Hank is still trying to figure out a plan, a simple plan, that will get them in the clear for good (again) but Jacob tells him that he is done trying to do this, it's not worth it, he won't be able to sleep at night with all these burdens upon his head.
Hank's response may sum up the movie, he says, "This is what happiness costs!"

Now, I don't know if anyone is able to think back to one of the first scenes of the movie, and I apologize if I'm being redundant from someone's else post, but it is a voiceover by Hank about all that it takes to be happy, Hank said that according to his father, "It was just a few simple things, for example, a family, a good job, friends and neighbors who like and respect you." (I am paraphrasing because I was unable to write down all of the things he said in the speech, as he was talking too fast.)

But just think about the irony of that. At the beginning of the movie, all it took to be happy was a family, which Hank had, a good job, Hank didn't have a great job but he could survive and be happy, and finally "friends and neighbors who like and respect him," he certainly had all of those things and in the end all of his friends and neighbors end up dead, killed, gone, and his life becomes an empty and void nightmare.

Hank had all he needed to be happy and together with his wife, they destroyed it all, and the life they once enjoyed would never be the same. This may be going to far with the film but I don't think Hank and Sarah will stay married.

His father was right when he talked about the simple things that made you happy, and maybe Hank was just a victim but he let the web get so expanded, that it destroyed everything in its path. The final image of the film can show the dark abyss of all the friends he lost and I felt that in the past, that may have been where Jacob sat sometimes and that Hank was coming to the realization that Jacob was never coming back.

But back to my original point, why I have rescinded some of my criticism of the movie. I still have the same problems about his wife knowing everything, the FBI, and the Lou's wife getting blown away so ridiclously, but I felt that the movie tied together well and the way that happiness was referenced at the beginning and end so subtlety and I felt it tied together the movie of how everyone changed from beginning and end and the destruction that was left in its wake.

The movie also became more and more relatable and I felt like I could be as helpless and confused, and trying to grasp on to all of life, like Hank. But the movie certainly portrayed realism very well and despite all the horrible things the characters had done, I still sympathized with all of them and felt bad for them and the events they were thrown into.

Finally, I guarantee if Hank had never found the money, Sarah would never had realized that she was upset and that she was probably perfectly happy living how she did. But once she realized that she could have more, her vices took over and she became greedy and sought bigger and better things and felt like she needed and deserved the money.

On the year, this movie, like Sanbeg alluded to, will end up in the middle of the pack.