Best Laid Plans Review
by Michael Dequina (twotrey AT juno DOT com)September 14th, 1999
_Best_Laid_Plans_ (R) ** 1/2 (out of ****)
I have much to say about _Best_Laid_Plans_, but I'm afraid that I can't really say much of anything about it. To go into detail is to ruin the biggest pleasure the film has to offer--and if I did that, I'm afraid there's not too much else left to enjoy in director Mike Barker's interesting but ultimately underwhelming film.
The film opens with two old college buddies, Nick (Alessandro Nivola) and Bryce (Josh Brolin), talking over drinks at a bar in their small hometown of Tropico. With the entrance of a fetching young blonde (Reese Witherspoon), the film fades out, and when it fades back in, a few hours have passed, and Bryce finds himself in a predicament that he feels only Nick can bail him out of--Bryce had sex with the girl, who, as it turns out, is underage, and in a panic, he tied her up and is holding her hostage in the basement.
The rest of _Best_Laid_Plans_ should be left a mystery; needless to say, as the title implies, there are some plans involved, and, in turn, the implication that comes with calling them "best laid"--as in those of mice and men, and, consequently, as in them going awry. These plans, however, are not what one would expect, and the series of twists upon twists that writer Ted Griffin devises does keep one interested in what happens next.
The problem, however, is what appears to be the trademark of Griffin, whose only other effort was the satirical cannibalism movie _Ravenous_--that is, the blending of elements that aren't normally mixed. Grisly subject matter (with the bloody gore to match) and sometimes broad satire were paired fairly uneasily in _Ravenous_, and here the odd combo is that of a dark, mean-spirited thriller with straightforward romantic elements. It would take very skilled jugglers in the writing and directing departments to mix these opposite ends of the emotional spectrum without appearing to exhibit a split personality, which, I'm afraid, is how _Best_Laid_Plans_ comes off; the most telling moment is the film's resolution, which adds a lethally unnatural flavor of sugar to the film's black bile.
The actors, for the most part, fare well under the circumstances; Nivola is convincing (if unspectacular), and Witherspoon, who has never given a bad performance, doesn't break her streak here. The weakest link is Brolin's annoying Bryce, but in his defense, a lot of that is the fault of the writing; Bryce displays very few, if any, redeeming qualities, making one wonder why Nick would keep him as a friend--and thus removing any resonance from the whole "betrayal of friendship" theme.
Which brings us back to the title. Barker and Griffin had some interesting ingredients in place for this noirish thriller, and obviously had an intriguingly twisty course clearly mapped out for themselves. Alas, much like those mice and men...
Michael Dequina
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
