Dead Simple

Rating

Director

Jason Bloom

Screenplay

Richard Uhlig, Steve Seitz

Length

1h 37m

Starring

Daniel Stern, James Caan, Patricia Richardson, Lacey Kohl, Sherry Stringfield, Larry Reese, Andy Maton, Shaun Johnston, Tim Abell

MPAA Rating

R

Review

PREFACE:
In the early 2000s, I was writing reviews for an outfit called Apollo Guide Reviews. That website has since been closed down.

Attempting to reconstruct those reviews has been an exercise in frustration. Having sent them to Apollo Guide via email on a server I no longer have access to (and which probably doesn’t have records going back that far), my only option was to dig through The Wayback Machine to see if I could find them there. Unfortunately, while I found a number of reviews, a handful of them have disappeared into the ether. At this point, almost two decades later, it is rather unlikely that I will find them again.

Luckily, I was able to locate my original review of this particular film. Please note that I was not doing my own editing at the time, Apollo Guide was. As such, there may be more than your standard number of grammatical and spelling errors in this review. In an attempt to preserve what my style had been like back then, I am not re-editing these reviews, which are presented as-is.

REVIEW:
Great things come in small packages and this treat of a movie definitely comes in the smallest of cinematic packages. A film that premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival and then went direct to video, Dead Simple is a little-seen gem that easily entertains.

Frank Jacobs (Daniel Stern) is a lonely country songwriter trapped in a loveless marriage and living in a dingy motel at the geographic centre of the United States. His wife, Helen (Patricia Richardson), is a venomous shrew whose only pleasure comes from tormenting her husband.

One evening at a local amateur night, Frank meets Roy Baker (James Caan), a country idol who is there with his girlfriend, Julie Mitchell (Lacey Kohl). When Roy dumps Julie at the side of the road because she got drunk before a performance, Frank picks her up and takes her back to the motel. Helen immediately interprets this as evidence that the two are together, and starts causing problems. When this escalates into trouble for everyone, Frank and Julie embark on a road trip of multiple mistaken killings and body burials.

Dead Simple is quite shocking in much of its content, throwing audiences through a loop every ten minutes with a new twist in this continually bizarre saga. Like in a traditional country song, every character’s life is affected differently and every tragedy imaginable occurs.

Stern rarely fills a role much differently from all his previous performances, but here manages to perform admirably. Richardson is terrific in the dual role as Frank’s wife and her twin sister. Sherry Stringfield, as Frank’s unknown love Marguerite, is underused, but effective. Kohl has an amazing voice, but not much talent for acting, while Caan – despite his substantial talents – is the one actor who feels as if he’s been miscast into his role.

There are dozens of black comedies and some are great, some are horrendous, but all possess a singular macabre sense of humour. Dead Simple is one of the good ones, a delightful departure from much of the gloss and glory Hollywood puts forth regularly.

Artistically, the film isn’t as creative as it might have been. It devotes too many shots to hinting at where it’s going next and even the dramatically-expedited scenes seem to unfold overly slowly.

Dead Simple is a film that leaves you guessing, but eventually plays right into your ability to predict its outcome. It is unfortunate, but so few films are able to capture a pure surprise ending that you cannot fault director Jason Bloom who does his best to create a morbid, tense and funny film.

For all its limitations and imperfections, this country ballad of a movie is worth checking out, even if it’s not your style of music.

Review Written

September 19, 2001