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Bookmark this pageBest Laid Plans (1999)
Director: Mike Barker
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Tropico is small town anywhere, USA, and Nick (Nivola) has a scummy job in a recycling plant. Meeting Lissa (Witherspoon) is just about the only highlight in his life just now, and he'd hoped that an inheritance from his late father would be their ticket to somewhere else. No chance. The taxman has swallowed the lot, leaving Nick all too susceptible when pals at work tell him of a robbery they're setting up. What sounds like no-risk turns into a nightmare with Nick left owing serious money to the heaviest dude in town. There are surprises for even the veteran twist-spotter, but the film is far from an exercise in empty narrative mechanics: friendship, loyalty, moral choices move events this way and that. Nivola gives a canny performance, while Witherspoon's sympathetic support and Brolin's seeming fall guy provide a persuasive foundation for all the slipperiness that follows. British director Barker keeps the cast believable but fabricates a noir-ish Edward Hopper backdrop around them, delivering a tantilising hyper-reality.Author: TJ
User reviews of this film
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- jonathan davison said...
- Posted on Apr 26 2008 20:10 It's a brilliant film. I have seen it a few time and enjoyed every bit of it. He's one of my favourit movie directors off all time and he's my cousin.
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Cast & crew
Director: Mike Barker
Producer: Alan Greenspan, Betsy Beers, Chris Moore, Sean Bailey
Cast: Alessandro Nivola, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Rocky Carroll, Michael G Hagerty, Terrence Howard, Jamie Marsh full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 93 mins
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