Best Laid Plans

How much you enjoy Mike Barker's modern film noir will depend in large part on your preferences regarding plot and character. Here's the initial set-up: Two reunited school buddies--English professor Bryce (Josh Brolin) and recycling plant worker Nick (Allesandro Nivola) meet for drinks. Later that evening Nick gets a frantic call from Bryce about a problem: turns out he took a woman (Reese Witherspoon) he met at the bar back to the tres ultra plush pad where he's house-sitting, drank a little, fooled around a little, and now the woman is a) claiming he raped her, and b) 16-years-old. Through flashbacks, we learn that virtually nothing is as it seems: characters who don't seem to know one another have history and nearly everyone is setting up everyone else. To reveal more would spoil the film's only draw, it's twisty-turn-y plot; subject this to any kind of serious scrutiny regarding character, however, and you'll find nothing but stick figures wheeled around the canvas according to the dictates of the connect-the-dots script with only token stabs at credible human interaction. A bomb at the box office, Best Laid Plans will satisfy none too particular thrill-seekers and is therefore an optional purchase. (R. Pitman)