Best Laid Plans
by Mike Barker
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alessandro Nivola, Gene Wolande, Jonathan McMurtry, Josh Brolin, Reese WitherspoonDirector: Mike Barker
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.85:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-02-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Best Laid Plans
Movie Review: A Seemingly Simple Story That Unravels Its Twists Surprisingly Well
Summary: 4 Stars
Screenwriter Ted Griffin ('Ocean's Eleven', 'Matchstick Men', 'Rumor Has It', etc) has provided a story for this little film that is successful on many levels: it is a suspenseful mystery, an intelligent look at the Now Generation's unstable approach to life as hopefully handed to them on their parents' goodwill, a mind twister full of surprises, and most of all a metaphor for where we now stand as a consumer world contained in disposable vials. Working with director Mike Barker's keen sense of timing and comic relief, a fine young cast of notable actors drives this story of desperate turns of fate to an unsuspected ending. The trip is worth your attention.
The nowhere/somewhere town setting is Tropico, a dusty boring little place whose reason for existing is a massive recycling plant for discarded containers - just the right setting for a story about little town people who have discarded their dreams. Nick (Alessandro Nivola) works in the recycling plant, basing his hopes for something better on the death of his father and the Will through which he plans to gain a comfortable inheritance. But the Life Insurance policy is negated after an autopsy report reveals a 'preexisting condition' and the remaining assets of his father are owed to the IRS. Nick is broke and in his low state of esteem agrees to be a driver for a drug heist to make enough money to leave boring Tropico. The heist is a bust and Nick is threatened by the owner of the drug stash that he must come up with a large sum of money or else. Nick turns to his girlfriend Lissa (Reese Witherspoon) who also wants to leave Tropico and reluctantly agrees to a complex scam against Nick's old college chum Bryce (Josh Brolin). When that scam falls apart there are even more surprises that keep the story bubbling until the unsuspected conclusion.
Nivola is outstanding in this tricky role and Witherspoon and Brolin are convincing. Of note there is a very brief role for newcomer Terrence Howard - the film was made in 1999 before some of these actors gained notoriety in the Oscars. Though not entirely without flaws, this fascinating study of recyclable people enmeshed in their own wayward schemes is an entertaining and stimulating tour de force for all involved. It is well worth a second look! Grady Harp, September 07
Summary of Best Laid Plans
At first, Best Laid Plans comes off like yet another all-flash-no-substance crime thriller, but it's one of those rare films that end better than they start. Nick (Alessandro Nivola from Face/Off), broke and desperate to get out of his suffocating small town, agrees to take part in a drug heist. When his partners get caught, he has less than a week to come up with $15,000 or suffer the consequences. When his college buddy Brice (Josh Brolin--Flirting with Disaster) comes back to town, Nick and his girlfriend Lissa (Reese Witherspoon) hatch a plan to bilk Brice out of a rare collectible. Of course, things go wrong--which is where things get entertaining. The plot could use a few more twists to really crackle, but the surprises it does have work, and the ending is both clever and affecting. Along the way, the best scene features a drug dealer who quotes economic theory from the bible of capitalism, The Wealth of Nations. In the past few years, Witherspoon has turned in superb performances in such varied movies as Freeway, Pleasantville, and especially Election; Best Laid Plans doesn't make much use of her talent, but she's always watchable. --Bret FetzerWelcome to Tropico, a gray little town smack dab in the middle of nowhere where nothing ever happens- until a botched robbery leaves Nick (Alessandro Nivola) 48 hours to pay up or die. Desperate, Nick and his girlfriend Lissa (Reese Witherspoon) undertake drastic measures to get their hands on some fast cash. Enter Nick's old college chum Bryce (Josh Brolin), a seemingly easy mark who holds the ticket to the couple's salvation. But before long, all three young people will find themselves entwined in a dangerous web of betrayal and seduction that L.A. Weekly calls "a treasure map of double crosses and hairpin turns."
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