Film review by Kevin Patterson
Fargo * * * 1/2 (out of four) R, 1996 Directed by Joel Coen. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Frances McDormand, William Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare.
As the Coens' "Fargo" begins, shifty Minneapolis car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William Macy) drives down a snow-bound road to a bar in Fargo, North Dakota, where he meets two thugs-for-hire, Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare). He has a rather unique proposition for them; they are to kidnap his wife and demand $80,000 in ransom from her wealthy father, then split the ransom money with Jerry. What is instantly clear, however, is that, as well as being generally unsavory types, Showalter and Grimsrud are dumber than a box of rocks and probably should not be trusted with Jerry's laundry, much less his wife. Between that and the fact that "Fargo" is the latest from Joel and Ethan Coen, who brought us "Blood Simple" and "Raising Arizona," among others, it's a pretty safe bet from then on that things are going to go haywire. Pretty soon, the very pregnant Sheriff Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) of Brainerd, Minnesota is being called in to investigate a triple homicide on an isolated highway and Jerry's scatter-brained scheme is going hopelessly awry.
Yet "Fargo" is more than just a crime/suspense thriller. It is "about" this kidnapping scheme, but it is about a lot of other things too. It is about Northern accents and expressions like "you betcha." It is about ice on the windshield and large quantities of snow. Most importantly, it is about how a laid-back community of Northern Midwesterners come face-to-face with cold-blooded evil in the persons of Showalter and Grimsrud, and how they deal with it in their typically laid-back, golly-gee-whiz (or in this case, "oh yah, yer darn-tootin'!"), easy-going way. McDormand herself has described it as "miles and miles of pure white snow, splattered with red blood."
Stylistically, "Fargo" occupies a middle ground between "Blood Simple" and "Raising Arizona," it has both the disturbing violence of the former and the wacky humor of the latter. Sometimes it even has both at once, such as when Jerry finds a piece of Showalter's handywork in the form of a dead parking lot clerk and mutters, "Oh jeez" with all the animation of someone who just stubbed his toe. The kidnapping scene itself is a similar mix; Mrs. Lundegard and Showalter stare curiously at each other through the window for a good thirty seconds before the two thugs break in, and later, when she bites Grimsrud's hand in attempt to escape, he goes upstairs to clean himself up in the family's bathroom, leaving Showalter to chase her. The Coens do not make the mistake of laughing off the violence entirely, however; the scene in which Grimsrud hunts down two witnesses and kills them execution-style, for example, is unabatedly vicious and brutal.
"Fargo" is sometimes black-comic and sometimes just plain black, but there is plenty of good-natured humor as well, most of it deriving from the quirks of the local culture and the charm of McDormand's character. "Oh, for Pete's sake, he's fleein' the interview!" she exclaims at one point when a suspect eludes her during an interrogation. Not only is she instantly likeable and intelligent, she is also remarkably hardy and persistent for a woman seven months pregnant. When she arrives at the initial crime scene, for example, beset with morning sickness, she excuses herself momentarily to vomit, then returns and promptly gets back to her job. The locals, meanwhile, are featured in several scenes in which witnesses call the police with long-winded, banal stories but can only describe Showalter as "a little fella, kinda funny-lookin'." The interaction between Showalter and Grimsrud is also quite amusing at times, such as when Showalter, frustrated by Grimsrud's lack of interest in coversation, delivers a thoroughly un-silent monologue about how "two can play at that game, buddy," and how he is going to be completely [bleeping] silent.
The Coens claim (falsely) at the start that "Fargo" is based on a true story, and they do take something of a documentary approach, allowing themselves to go off on minor tangents about the various characters rather than sticking to a carefully defined suspense-movie plot structure. This is a good idea, as the characters and the regional culture are really the most interesting thing about the film, but at times the Coens stretch it a little too far. A brief segment in the middle when everyone involved seems to be more or less twittling their thumbs is still a little out of place in a kidnapping story, however loosely structured it may be. The duo also leave what is at least a minor plot thread dangling, which is a surprise given how meticulous they normally are in crafting their stories and the supposed "true-to-life" aspect of the film.
Those who have hailed "Fargo" as the Coens' masterpiece are, I think, overstating their case a little bit: it doesn't quite match up to the unnerving surrealism of "Barton Fink" or the madcap comedy of "The Hudsucker Proxy" and "Raising Arizona." Still, it is one of the better and more original crime dramas of the past few years, and well worth seeing.
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