> I was trying too hard not to yank my hair off my scalp during the last thirty minutes of this movie.This movie makes me more curious to check out the screenwriting collaborations between Sam Raimi and the Coen brothers, because this was a blast. I knew Raimi was great with horror comedies, but this movie shows that he is truly fantastic at directing a high-stakes crime drama. Raimi is inspired by the Coen brothers snowy thrillers like 'Fargo', but Raimi manages to make it his own. His directing in this movie is some of his best, immediately establishing the characters' motivations while thoroughly developing them throughout the plot. They make bad decisions, but they manage to make them feel like real people and not plot devices. The atmosphere of this movie is suspenseful and icy, making covering up their tracks much harder. The performances are some of the best in any Sam Raimi movie, particularly Bridget Fonda and Billy Bob Thornton, who are both delivering career best p[erformances. Raimi knows how to shoot these characters to evoke their true feelings about the situation while using great techniques to up the stakes. I love the 'Evil Dead' and the 'Spider-Man' movies and thoroughly enjoyed 'Send Help' & 'Drag Me to Hell', but a part of me hopes Raimi makes another movie in a similar vein to this.
