Amazon.co.uk Review
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 blackmail Brice out of a rare collectable. 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, Reese 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 Fetzer
Synopsis
Nick (Alessandro Nivola, FACE/OFF) and Lissa (Reese Witherspoon, LEGALLY BLONDE) are in love but dying to get out of their hometown of Tropico. When Nick is offered a shady job in a drug heist that would pay enough for the couple to leave, he jumps at the opportunity, but things go wrong and Nick gets in trouble with the local drug dealer. Nick and Lissa then plan a scam to get the money they need from old buddy, Bryce (Brolin) but once again, things don't go as planned. A twisty neo-noir with plot turns galore.