billy bob thornton , who had a sudden rise to fame with 1996's sling blade after spending years as a virtually unknown actor and writer , is becoming one of the most versatile - and most accomplished - american actors around at the moment . as jacob , the simple but at times very bright loser brother of bill paxton's hank , thornton gives a performance which should leave an indelible mark on all but the most hardened viewers . three men , hank ( paxton ) , jacob ( thornton ) and their friend lou ( brent briscoe ) stumble upon a plane wreck which , upon closer inspection , yields a rotting corpse and a bag full of money . jacob and lou want to pocket the cash . hank , the smarter - and perhaps more naive - of the three , insists on leaving the money for the authorities to find . eventually , they agree to keep the cash safe until the plane is found , and then split the money three ways . things start going wrong , though , with greed and violence weaving their ways through their plan . disaster is sure to strike . director sam raimi , of the evil dead and darkman fame , has made an excellent and thought-provoking film , worlds away from the comic horror films which made his name . while there are a couple of moments which might remind one of his earlier work , raimi has made an intelligent and mature departure which will hopefully be a sign of even greater films to come . scott b . smith's screenplay , based on his novel ( which i haven't read ) is a fine example of escalating tension . while it does remind one of danny boyle's shallow grave without the abundance of black humour , it keeps the drama that should really be a part of such a story on morality , or the lack thereof , found in a film with this subject matter . alar kivilo's cinematography reminds one of joel and ethan coen's fargo , with the bleak , snowy landscape almost becoming another character . danny elfman also does well with his moody , finely-written score . if there's a flaw in the film , it's that it goes on for just a little too long . just when we think that they are about to wrap things up , raimi and smith decide to let the film go on a little further . while this isn't really a bad thing , it did become a little frustrating at times ( this may have been due to the fact that i had consumed a large sprite beforehand ) . the performances are excellent , with the usually annoying paxton in fine form and bridget fonda giving a scene-stealing turn as hank's scheming wife . this is an excellent showcase for thornton's fine skills as an actor and a great change in direction for raimi , who could very well have a career ahead of him as an accomplished director of dramatic films . fingers crossed , though , that this doesn't stop him from making another evil dead sequel .
