Perhaps the biggest surprise about "A Simple Plan" is that it was directed by Sam Raimi, the director of the gory "Evil Dead" trilogy and the man behind the "Hercules" and "Xena" TV shows. With "A Simple Plan", Mr. Raimi has made a subtly smooth transition into mainstream filmmaking.

The plan of the title involves three men, two of them (Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, creating another fantastic character) brothers, who happen upon the snow-covered wreckage of a downed private jet containing 4.4 million dollars. The men decide that Mr. Paxton's character, the self-proclaimed brains of the group, will hide the money until they deem it is safe and then they will split it. If there is any sign of trouble, Mr. Paxton will burn the money.

The snow, which consistently falls in this unnamed northern town, becomes a useful metaphor for all the track-covering that the men do throughout the film. Mr. Paxton, giving his most understated performance since "Travelers", is the anchor that holds the plan together but, as the pressure mounts, he quietly strips away layer after layer of his character as he asks himself how far he is willing to go for the American Dream.

The relationship between the three men is further threatened when Mr. Paxton's wife, played colder than the film's winter by Bridget Fonda, joins in the scheming. Though she is very pregnant throughout the film, she stands up as an equally worthy accomplice for the three men.

In the end, the audience becomes an accomplice too right up until a final climactic scene which, in its inevitability, is more haunting than anything in Mr. Raimi's previous films.