Best Laid Plans Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Best Laid Plans Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .of mice and men often go awry. But does this film?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 29, 2012

Are we far enough past Lost to post something about one of its “twists” without being accused of spoiling anything? Hopefully, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. In the huge sprawling storyline that involved so many characters and more than a few unexpected deaths, probably none was more shocking than the sudden demise of Mr. Eko, played by the soulful-eyed Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Sure, the deaths of Boone and Ana Lucia were shocking in their own way, but they didn’t seem to have quite the visceral emotional impact that Mr. Eko’s death did, perhaps because Mr. Eko, despite some questionable decisions in his past, seemed so much more sympathetic on a basic level than either Boone or Ana Lucia did (whatever their relative strengths as characters). Part of that sympathetic quality must certainly be traced to the expert portrayal by Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and actor with an incredibly expressive face (especially those eyes) and a demeanor that seems to exude an almost Zen-like calm at times. Akinnuoye-Agbaje gets to show off a similar soulfulness, albeit in a totally different context, in Best Laid Plans, an interesting if somewhat flawed revisal of John Steinbeck’s immortal classic Of Mice and Men. The title of Best Laid Plans itself harkens back to the original Robert Burns poem which itself was inspiration for the Steinbeck novel’s title. In the original version, the Burns poem read:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley

That was “translated” into more readily understandable English wherein “gang aft agley” became “go often awry”, though just as often “best laid schemes” is changed, perhaps inexplicably, to “best laid plans”. But other than the pairing of a mentally challenged giant with a scruffy protector (of sorts), there’s little else that ties the two projects together.

Steinbeck’s novella (which many of us read in either elementary school or junior high before political correctness saw it increasingly banned for supposed “insensitive” language) deals with two migrant farm workers in Depression Era California. George is the quick-witted, scheming and planning mentor to Lennie, a mentally challenged behemoth whose love of soft things repeatedly gets him into trouble. The novella is a touching yet disturbing portrait of friendship under unendurable circumstances, and Steinbeck populates the short work with his usual battery of colorful supporting characters, some extremely likable (even lovable), others absolutely vile. Best Laid Plans updates the story to contemporary Nottingham, England, a time and place perhaps not so far removed from Steinbeck’s original conception, especially in light of the economic downturn of the past few years.

In this version, George becomes Danny (Stephen Graham, Boardwalk Empire), a two bit crook who utilizes the services of this version’s Lennie, now named Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), to purloin things like washing machines when no one is watching. The opening sequence sees Joseph single-handedly carrying a fairly large washing machine down the street under Danny’s encouragement, until suddenly a local crime boss (David O’Hara) shows up, insisting Danny pay him the ten thousand pounds he owes him—now. The boss’ henchmen start to take matters (meaning Danny) into their own hands, at which point Joseph, who has been standing nearby, sets down the washer and takes care of the henchmen rather handily. That gives the mob boss the bright idea of letting Danny pay off his debts by enlisting Joseph in cage fighting matches.

There’s an interim section here in Best Laid Plans where the basic outlines of the plot have been drawn up, but we then get little character bits, as Danny attempts to convince Joseph to fight, something Joseph neither understands nor is willing to do. In the meantime, both men meet women, perhaps somewhat improbably in the case of Joseph. And mob boss Curtis is in the background threatening to break Danny’s knuckles (among various other joints) if he doesn’t get Joseph to comply with his scheme. While this intermediate set of sequences helps develop the characters quite nicely, it also brings and already somewhat slow film to a screeching halt for several minutes.

Once we get into the main thrust of the story, when Joseph does indeed start fighting, we have the “plus” of the story delivering some visceral action (some of it quite disturbing) with the “minus” of everything in the film becoming relentlessly dour. Joseph is such a basically childlike character that it’s extremely unsettling to see him (especially in this extremely powerful portrayal by Akinnuoye-Agbaje) not really understanding what’s going on, as Danny stands outside of the cage, urging his buddy to pound the crap out of his opponent. These scenes are thrust up rather anachronistically against the burgeoning romances of Danny and Joseph, to varying effects. The relationship between Joseph and a mentally troubled young woman named Isabel (Maxine Peake) is unexpectedly touching, if not exactly totally believable. Their first kiss is a study in awkwardness and is quite affecting.

British film has as strong, if not stronger, of an indie tradition as the United States, stretching back at least as far as the Angry Young Man dramas of the late fifties and early sixties, and Best Laid Plans rather perfectly falls into a lot of the tropes of the idiom, with an emphasis on characters in dire straits and a generally quieter ambience, in spite of this film’s more than occasional explosions of violence. More than anything, this is an actor’s piece, and Graham and Akinnuoye-Agbaje are really incredible in their roles, creating two extremely well delineated characters. If you only know Akinnuoye-Agbaje from Lost or Oz, prepare to be amazed: this an actor of ferocious gifts and towering stature (and not just the physical kind).

The film is occasionally tonally inconsistent (the early sequence with Curtis and his henchmen chasing Danny is almost played for laughs, especially when Danny runs through a neighborhood pub and pauses to take a quick swig of beer from an abandoned stein). Director David Blair, who is both a BAFTA and Emmy award winner, does generally fine work here, though he also likes to show off occasionally, with crazy shots taken from the window of a speeding car and the like, which are at odds with the film's more intimate ambitions. The overall emotional feeling here is decidedly bittersweet, though scenarist Chris Green eschews the tragedy of Steinbeck’s denouement for a somewhat more ambivalent ending that sees sadness and euphoria coexisting, however tenuously.

Best Laid Plans Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Best Laid Plans is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is yet another Red One shot feature, lensed by Ali Asad, who rather nicely captures the gritty ambience of Nottingham's working class streets and alleys. The high definition presentation is extremely sharp and well defined, and a lot of the exterior footage offers some fantastic depth of field. Contrast is somewhat muted quite a bit of the time, and unfortunately that deprives the viewer of being able to clearly see some of Akinnuoye-Agbaje's expressions, especially in some of the more dimly lit sequences. Fine object detail is quite pleasing throughout this transfer and colors, while having been filtered (as seems to be the norm with these digitally shot outings), are decently saturated and appropriately skewed towards a dreary gray side of the spectrum.

Best Laid Plans Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Best Laid Plans features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio mix that toes the line rather artfully between quieter dialogue moments and some bombastic action sequences where the full panoply of surround activity comes into play. Ambient environmental noises are quite well utilized throughout the feature from the very first scene, but intimacy is never sacrificed when the film concentrates on Danny and Joseph. The cage fighting scenes are impeccably well done, creating both a sense of an out of control crowd along with a certain kind of sonic claustrophobia that Joseph is feeling. Fidelity is top notch and the film does offer a few more than glancing blows of LFE. Dynamic range is also quite wide and varied throughout the film. There is some good use of source cues here as well which sound great on the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. It's worth noting that there's also a surprisingly boisterous Dolby Digital 2.0 track on tap here, one of the better Dolby tracks I've sampled recently.

Best Laid Plans Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:53)

Best Laid Plans Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The strands tying Best Laid Plans to Of Mice and Men are rather tenuous at best, and the film is probably better appreciated more as an addition to the fine tradition of British independent film than it is as any quasi-brilliant re-do of Steinbeck's inimitable novella. The film is dramatically uneven, and the choice to but this version's "Lennie" in the cage fighting arena is questionable, to say the least. But the performances here are nothing short of magnificent, especially that of Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who is quite simply heartbreaking as Joseph. For those who like something a bit unusual, with a perhaps sketchy literary reference point, Best Laid Plans comes Recommended.