Fargo

Home
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1996
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Joel Coen
Genre:	Criminal fallibility, lies, greed
Starring:	William H. Macy, Frances McDormand
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/
Tagline:	A homespun murder story.
Favourite line:	Hooker 1: "Well, the little guy was kinda funny-lookin'." Gunderson: "In what way?" Hooker 1: "I dunno... just funny-lookin'" Gunderson: "Can you be any more specific?" Hooker 1: "I couldn't really say... He wasn't circumcised."

One of the Coen Brothers’ most highly regarded movies – only No Country for Old Men or The Big Lebowski really come close – this is a mellow, understated affair.

The plot:
Gerry Lundegaard is a desperate man.
Working at his car showroom, his attention is wavering from his job as, far from concentrating on the task at hand, his every moment is spent worrying about how he is going to lay his hands on money.
Lots of money.
Hatching a plan, Gerry decides the best thing he can do is arrange for his wife to be kidnapped, then ‘negotiate’ her return, her father being the ‘mark’ that will pay the ransom, half of which will go to the kidnapers, the other half for Gerry to trouser.
Kidnapping arranged, suddenly a fresh opportunity arises, so the old scheme should be null and void. Trouble is, Gerry can’t contact the kidnappers and, besides, they’ve already killed a cop and, when finally they do call, it’s with bad news: they want more money.

Played dead straight, the Coen’s here focus on the normalcy that surrounds crime.
Conversations go on for extended periods, many of them of a very banal nature, but it’s all about grounding the story, emphasising the reality of it.
The movie opens with the startling claim that ‘This Is a True Story.’ Not based on one. Not inspired by one. It is one. Period. Which explains a lot.
One of the Coen’s tricks, even in their ‘proper movies’ – not the lightweight shit like Raising Arizona or Hudsucker Proxy – is to portray our world, though slightly skewed. Everything is nearly right. Everything nearly seems real and, here, this is most evident in the awkwardness of some of the dialogue, as well as the strange accent most people seem to speak in, an American, European hybrid that is quite grating on occasion. (Fact fans may note, it is due to Scandinavian pioneers settling in the area – North Dakota –many moons ago and, find here, an example of the real accent, not the Coen’s exaggerated version:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N1YIqVInV8).
Though the slow place and lack of a real pay off may infuriate some, the reasons for this are clear – it’s a true story, not a work of fiction.
A movie that routinely appears in people’s top ten of all time, whilst I certainly would not go that far (it’s not even my favourite Coen Brothers film) this is rock solid movie-making from two of the best in the business.
Recommended.