Of all the deadly sins, greed can be the most destructive. When people want, and have need to want, they will do almost anything to satisfy said craving. For the Mitchells -- brothers Hank and Jacob, and the former's wife Sarah -- life in a small Northwestern town is depressing enough. It's the same for drinking companion Lou Chambers. Without money, or the means of getting enough to survive, it's almost unbearable. As characters in Scott Smith's celebrated novel A Simple Plan, these desperate people make the perfect cogs in a narrative machine loaded with menace and immorality. Leave it to former fright master Sam Raimi to provide a faithful motion picture adaptation -- which in this case, may not be such a good thing.

Hank Mitchell (Bill Paxton) owns a hardware store. His brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thorton) is slow, unassuming, and unemployed. His wife (Bridget Fonda) continuously harps about having a better life. When he, Jacob, and Jacob's beer buddy Lou (Brent Briscoe) stumble upon a downed plane in the middle of the Minnesota woods, they immediately think drug dealers. When they locate a satchel containing over $4 million, they mistakenly believe their ship has come in. While Hank wants to hide the money from the local authorities, all Jacob and Lou can think of is ways to spend it. Tempers flare as avarice rears its fatalistic head. It's not long before guns are drawn, threats are made, and law enforcement shows up, though no one is really sure if these are the cops... or the criminals who initially lost the cash.

While it seems like a contradiction in terms, visceral horror master Sam Raimi finds a way to turn Smith's seminal thriller into a wholly sterile experience. It's not that his adaptation of A Simple Plan is boring or dull. It's not that it's badly acted or poorly directed. Instead, the man responsible for such brazen bravado as The Evil Dead and Darkman has to reel himself in to make this mainstream effort, and the resulting restraint really shows. For all the visual wonder and ice pick suspense he creates, there's still a lack of fire typically found in a Raimi movie. In fact, if you didn't read his name in the credits, you'd be hard pressed to find traces of the macabre maverick here.

Granted, Raimi is still a fine filmmaker, and A Simple Plan resonates with his artistic choices. The cold landscape of rural Minnesota looks effortlessly bleak, concrete gray skies offset by the pure white snow (perfect for a little deep red bloodshed, right?). Similarly, this is one director who knows how to coax expert performances out of his cast. Especially good is Thorton as the slower of the Mitchell boys, and Briscoe as the bumbling best friend who lets the lure of money mess everything up. There are terrific set pieces throughout the film -- the initial discovery of the cash, the stand-off at the Briscoe home, the arrival of the (supposed) FBI -- all handled with aplomb and a high level of accomplishment.

And yet there's really nothing new about Raimi's take on this type of material. Instead of jazzing it up with his usual flair, or finding the inherent evil inside the individuals involved, we are stuck with the same old double crosses and fatal accidents. Characters turn cruel and, before long, brother is pitted against brother. Oddly enough, the actor making the strongest impression here is not Thornton (though he deserved his Oscar nod). No, Bridget Fonda finds the right amount of selfish, cold-blooded calculation to make her meek housewife a real terror. Had Raimi reinvented this cinematic type, we'd have much more than a thriller. As it is, A Simple Plan is powerful, if pedestrian.