Movie Review: A Perfect Plan
July 21, 2020Robbery/heist films are tricky to do, with all the planning, action sequences, and backstories to cover. It is made even more difficult when you are a smaller film but thanks to some solid direction and high energy, A Perfect Plan has a lot of fun with the limited time and budget it has to work with.
To that end, thankfully, the premise is pretty simple: Four master criminals wake up in a warehouse and come to realize that they must work together to rehearse for a big heist that will then, in theory, be done for real. Led by veteran thief Grayson (played by veteran actor William Forsythe), Kate (Kathleen Munroe), Rowan (Michael Hough), and Magdalene (Gia Sandu), the four criminals must work quickly and efficiently to prepare for what lies ahead. All the while they are being watched/monitored by the mysterious Theo (Carlo Rota) from an area offsite to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Director Jesse D. Ikeman, making his debut here, does a good job in keeping the movie-going, while at the same time trying to give us a bit of a backstory to the characters, to keep the viewers interested. There is some great pace this film and the time constraints these characters are on obviously helps the movie move at a nice pace. The characters have some great interactions, led by Forsythe, who simply commands the camera and attention whenever he is on screen.
The film manages to do a lot with its obvious budget constraints, making each location look and feel real. A lot of smaller films like this try to fill too much into what limited time they have but Ikeman and co-writer Geoff Hart seem to understand this and make every scene count, stories mean something, without a lot of unnecessary dialogue and over the top moments. It must have been a joy to have Rota and Forsythe on set, two actors who know what to do had how to do it and they seem to have a great time in their respective roles.
With the story being what it was, and what the four criminals were practicing for, I really wish the film could have been a bit longer. There were some missed moments where some interesting character interaction/backstory was left undeveloped or some sequences that just happened too quickly. I understand the limitations that the director and this shoot were under, it was just a bit frustrating that we couldn’t have gotten a little bit more out of both the characters and some action.
That being said, A Perfect Plan was a fun, smart film with interesting characters and a solid plot. Ikeman did a great job in his debut and managed to get a lot out of what he had to work with, in terms of time and locations.
Three and a half stars out of five