I finally got a chance to watch this movie and I was not disappointed. For starters, this film gripped me right from the start. I also appreciate how much time and care the Coens put into this film. I love the way that in this movie they seem to place so much care with things that other directors with a less defined style and less visionary abilities would have simply overlooked. This is the same style that allows them not only to mix the most macabre and crude violent scenes with the funniest and even cutest scene, but tell an old story that we have been told since we were kids, you know, the one that tells us that money is nothing and that that greed equals bad, in an updated and different cool way.
The movie really works on many levels, not only as black comedy but as a thriller. The plot is constructed well, and gets across equally as well thanks to a very good screenplay, which of course, just so happens to be acted out by great, great cast. Frances McDormand who probably delivers the best performance of her life in this movie as the slightly annoying very pregnant police woman from Minnesota on the trail of solving and intricate business of a murder that tood place in the middle of a snowy road (or as the poster recites, in the middle of nowhere). William H Macy is also brilliant as the greedy ‘loser’ who winds up caught in up in the very same mess that he created by organising her wife’s kidnapping to get money from his tight father in law. I also need to highlight Steve Buscemi in his supporting role as one of the kidnappers that, as usual, almost steals the show.
I also feel like praising the production design of this movie, because one thing that really stood out for me was how cute the character looked in those jackets with those hoods up to shelter themselves from the winter. There is something cartoonish especially in the police characters. Not to mention that the character of Marge, played by McDormand, to me looks like a sunday newspaper comic strip character as a Minnesota cop, and I say that because her character really stands out from every other cliche detective character that I have ever seen in a movie.
It also helps the repuatation of the movie that the photography is very soft, so even the most violent shots looks very nice. Some shots come close to iconic, whether it is an important sequence like the one of the finale, or even a secondary one that portrays Marge and her husband side by side in a canteen walking towards a table, that again plays upon the ‘cute’ element. It is a very appealing movie, and close to being perfect. The only scene I had a problem with was when she meets up with an old friend who tells her his wife died and admits to being lonely. I can guess that movie was put there to break the tension built up from the development of the plot, but to me, that scene just slows down the nice flowing pace that the film had had before it. The ending is very good and even poetic. The introduction of Marge comes a good bit after the film starts. This is explained with the ending, when the very pregnant Marge who still finds time to say hi to an old friend and have conversations on the phone solves the mystery in a short amount of time, whereas all the ‘baddies’ involved in the movies can’t do anything else, and constantly think about what their next step will be in their criminal actions.
WATCH FOR THE MOMENT – Marge examines the crime scene for the first time. In a few minutes she almost completely understands what happened.
I recently, and by recently I mean a few months ago, joined Netflix with the primary intent to watch every single Coen brother’s film and after four weeks I accomplished that goal and I can say without a single shred of doubt in my mind that this film tops their list. The Coen’s have a tendency to set their films in cultural areas of America where each and every element of the setting is the stereotypical epitome of that region. However, there are certain regions that they tend to shy towards, such as the deep south as in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Blood Simple or the New England area such as in Burn After Reading and Miller’s Crossing or California as in Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. It is in this aspect that Fargo is set high above the rest: the setting. Set in snow-capped North Dakota, where every word is spoken with such a thick Northern accent that my Southern ears forced my hand to turn on subtitles, Fargo’s twisting plot and characters are highlighted with every move by the overwhelming landscape of white. That is the true treasure of this film. Never have I seen a film where the landscape played such a character in a film. So I agree completely with this review, with just a few points to the contrary. Firstly, while watching Steve Buscemi’s cheek get blown open and then his head get chopped off with an axe and then his entire body stuffed in a wood chipper, the word “cute” doesn’t even enter my mind, a word that I feel appeared too often in this review of a fairly violent film. And secondly, even though there are many praises for Francis McDormand’s performance, there aren’t nearly enough for a character that is arguably one of the greatest heroines in movie history. However, I agree completely and entirely with respect to the scene with the old friend in the bar. It doesn’t seem at all to fit with the plot other than to maybe add humanity to the otherwise perfect character of Marge. Overall I agree with this good review of this even greater movie.
I was pointing out the fact that this film ties in ‘cute’ scenes and imageries (example, Marge’s husband waking up early in the morning to make breakfast for his wife and the cartoon like depiction of the policemen with those funny looking jackets) and the ‘violent’ scenes and images that you pointed out.
I actually believe that this mixing of cute and violent, two things that usually contrappose themselves, is the strongest point of the film.