Search

Dead Simple

2001, Movie, R, 98 mins

Dead Simple: Review

starstarstarstar
This black comedy in which a country bumpkin checkmates some slick operators has a satisfyingly nasty edge. Henpecked Kansan Frank Jacobs (Daniel Stern) gets no respect from his conservative wife, Helen (Patricia Richardson). She dismisses his notions of a Country Western songwriting career, and never joins him when he sings at the local karaoke bar. One night, drunken Roy (James Caan), the lead singer of a touring pair of karaoke sharks, tosses out his over-sexed co-star, Julie (Lacey Kohn). She winds up crying on Frank's sympathetic shoulder, and plants the seeds of artistic discontent in Frank's mind. She encourages his writing ambitions, and suggests they cut a demo in Nashville or even open their own club. When Helen proves obstructive, Julie shoots her and claims it was self-defense. Gullible Frank covers up the crime and buries Helen. Unfortunately, Frank later catches Julie fooling around with an old army buddy and accidentally electrocutes them both in the bathtub. At this juncture, Helen's flashy twin sister, Wanda (Richardson again), starts snooping around and Roy, who's blown back into town to patch things up with Julie, begins to suspect Frank's guilty of some very bad things. Roy teams up with the opportunistic Wanda to blackmail Frank out of his property, which is now home to several corpses. Fearing that they know — literally — where the bodies are buried, Frank agrees to Roy and Wanda's demands. But deep down, he still hasn't relinquished his C&W dreams. Set in the kind of dead-end America ridiculed by the Coen Brothers, this catch-as-catch-can farce pokes fun at the folks who hover around the fringes of show biz. The smooth cast energizes this folksy comedy and never stoops to being patronizing, even when the film has a hard time sustaining its breathless pace. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
Advertisement

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. Dancing with the Stars
  2. The Game
  3. NCIS
  4. American Idol
  5. Wife Swap
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Michelle Obama
  2. Adam Lambert
  3. Tiger Woods
  4. Kym Johnson
  5. Donny Osmond
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
  2. The Blind Side
  3. 2012
  4. Planet 51
  5. A Christmas Carol
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Adam Lambert
  2. #5 Adam Lambert - For Your En...
  3. V
  4. #20 Adam Lambert American Mus...
  5. NCIS
more top videos