Movie Minx

Starring: William H Macy, Steve Buscemi, Frances McDormand, Peter Stormare
Directed by: Joel and Ethan Cohen (Raising Arizona, Big Lebowski, O Brother! Where Art Thou?)

Plot: An inept second-hand car salesman arranges to have his wife kidnapped by two bungling thugs for the ransom money he think it’ll generate. But he didn’t count on no-nonsense pregnant sheriff Marge being on his trail…

But is it any good?

My review will be slightly skewed by having had to do a scene-by-scene analysis of this film in Year 2 Film Studies, effectively sucking out about half the pleasure quotient. Still, its dark humor and zany characters make it one of the better movies of the ’90s.

Set in the American Midwest in a town called Brainerd, Fargo centers around the hapless plan of Jerry Lungergaard (Macy, who does hapless so very well) to have his wife kidnapped. Carl and Gaear are the two twits who get it all so wrong. Carl (Buscemi) is the chatty, oily one, and Gaear (Stormare) is the demented psychopath who barely speaks. Hot on their heels is the pregnant and homespun motherly type Marge (McDormand), who is sharper than her wobbling frame and rolling vowels imply. An embodiment of all that is good, she keeps a firm grip on the increasingly bizarre happenings around her (McDormand won an Oscar for the role). Poor Jerry crumbles under her calm, steady and polite gaze. “Oh for Pete’s sake, he’s fleein’ the interview!” she squeals as he takes off in his car.

But the snowy landscape and emotive score play just as big a role as the actors. Brainerd is a desolate place, its welcome sign guarded by a giant lumberjack statue which, when illuminated at night, looks more like a psychotic killer with an ax than the jolly figure he’s meant to be.

This is a film where extra care is taken with the smallest of details (as I recall from the scene-by-scene analysis - there was plenty to take in). From an expression lit up in a rear-view mirror by the headlights behind, to a woman frozen on the couch as she watches a hooded man peering at her through the screen door, every shot is memorable. The dialog turns from hilarious to tragic, always snappy, always demented.

Arguably the Cohen brothers’ best film, Fargo is once again proof that they weren’t afraid to reject Hollywood norms. Its one drawback for me is its detachment (it mocks all its characters), irony and ridiculousness sometimes overwhelm the story and hold the audience too far back. Give it a try if you’re a fan of irony and can handle a little un-PCness, but beware: it’s a violent film. One scene has a leg being processed in a wood-chipper - ’nuff said.

My rating: 8/10

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