Fargo - By far the Coen brothers’ best film

In case you don’t know, the minimalistly-titled ‘Fargo’ cemented the Coen brothers’ reputation as auteurs of modern cinema.  There was something about the film which just simply worked.  I’ve already used the term ‘minimalist’ once and I can’t really think of a better word to use to describe the film.

William H Macy plays ‘Jerry,’ a married man in financial trouble.  Feeling he has no way out, he decides to hire a couple of unsavoury characters to stage a kidnapping of his wife.  During their first meeting, the two ‘hoods’ aren’t as dumb as they may look and enquire as to why he wishes to ‘pay his own ransom.’ Jerry’s idea is that it will be his rich father in law who will pay and the cash will be split between himself and the ‘kidnappers.’ What could possibly go wrong?

Well... quite a bit, actually.  I won’t go into too many details about what happens (or more importantly all the different ways things don’t always work out the way you plan) as that’s half the fun.  The only thing you really need to know is that there are no car chases and the one shoot out is hardly akin to something you’d see in a Matrix film.  The film ambles along from one beautifully-bleak winter’s setting to the next, as the people go about their (sometimes pretty shady) business.

It’s fair to say that Fargo is pretty slow moving.  Now, sometimes that comes as a drawback, yet here, it just seems to work.  Soon a police officer is on both Jerry and the kidnappers’ trail, which brings added heat on everyone concerned.  And, in my opinion, this is the film’s only drawback.  Frances McDormand plays ‘Marge,’ the local sheriff who starts putting two and two together.  It was on about the second viewing of Fargo that I realised what I didn’t like about her.  She was pregnant.  Now, my reason for feeling this way is because Fargo is a pretty dark affair – you won’t know who’s going to come a cropper at the hands of a madman at any time.  However, it’s a brave film-maker who dares to harm a pregnant woman.  Now, Marge is clearly the only truly ‘good’ character – she’s smart, kind, clever and likable, but, being pregnant, you kind of know that nothing bad is going to happen to her.  This, for me anyway, took away a little bit of tension from the ‘chase.’

But, that’s just a minor gripe.  If you like your crime films slow and bleak then you’ll be one of the many who’ve enjoyed this.  The Coen brothers have made plenty of good films since (and a few slightly more forgettable ones), but this one is definitely their finest hour.  And, I’ve managed to come to the end of the review without managing to mention Steve Buscemi – he’s in it too.  And, as always, he’s great – just in case you needed an extra reason to watch.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that