A seemingly simple plan to steal money goes increasingly awry. <BR>&nbsp;

A seemingly simple plan to steal money goes increasingly awry.

In a bar in a small town in Nevada, former college friends Nick, (Alessandro Nivola), and Bryce, (Josh Brolin), are gabbing when a barely seen woman walks in - later that night Bryce, who is house-sitting for a mega-wealthy friend, calls Nick urgently seeking help. He`d picked up the girl in the bar, Reese Witherspoon, and taken her home for sex - only afterwards did she cry rape and claim she was underage. Now she`s his prisoner - he`s not willing to let her go for fear she`ll call the police. And then we go into a flashback - 4 months earlier - and it seems nothing was quite what we thought it was... Best Laid Plans has a clever, post-Tarantino screenplay by Ted Griffin, solid direction by Britisher Mike Barker, and a trio of good performances, with Reese Witherspoon once again confirming what a fine young actress she is. As you`ll have gathered, it`s one of those thrillers with plenty of twists and turns, a film which has been carefully scripted and honed down to the finest detail. Jet black humour suffuses this small-scale, but generally very satisfying thriller.