Fargo's a great film, yah? (Fargo (Special Edition, DVD))

Member Name: l-m-n-o-p

Product:	Fargo (Special Edition, DVD)
Date:	01/08/07 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's funny, poignant and slightly surreal, with great performances

Disadvantages: You might not "get" the humour, and there's a lot of swearing and violence

Fargo is the sixth movie by film-making brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, who between them wrote, directed and produced this, just like most of their films. I’m not that familiar with them, having only seen O Brother Where Art Thou (which I really liked) and The Big Lebowski (which was ok), but Fargo is considered by many as their finest film, and a modern American classic. Released in 1996, Fargo is a kind of dark comedy/drama, with gentle humour and a quirky screenplay, a bit like the others films I’ve seen by them.

It sets the scene from the very start, with beautiful photography of snowy North Dakota/Minnesota, and an eerie landscape where you can’t distinguish between the white of the snow and the white of the sky.

We are introduced to Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a car salesman who is in need of money, and quickly. To achieve this, he organises to have his own wife kidnapped by Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Peter Stormare), knowing that his wife’s rich father will pay the ransom. In a deal with the kidnappers, Jerry will receive half the money. Simple, right?

Naturally, things don’t go according to plan for a number of reasons - mostly Carl’s incompetence and Gaear’s penchant for violence. When they are stopped by an officer, Gaear takes matters into his own hands, leading to several deaths. Into the story steps Marge Gunderson (played by Frances McDormand): a down to earth, friendly, pregnant policewoman who is in charge of investigating the homicide.

As the kidnappers get into ever more trouble, Jerry becomes increasingly under pressure and Marge gets closer to finding the truth. But as the body count rises, will any of them make it to the end of the film in one piece?

I loved Fargo, but it’s hard to say why. I think it’s one of those films where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The story is pretty simple, really; quirky, but not particularly deep or remarkable. There was only one really memorable/classic scene (you’ll know the one if you’ve seen it).

Yet Fargo manages to be effortlessly entertaining, clever and thoughtful. The film races by so quickly that when the end came I wasn’t ready for it - it’s a complete cliché to say that you don’t want the film to end, but in this case it’s true. It seemingly came out of nowhere, even though the film had been playing for an hour and a half and the story had been wrapped up. I was just so engrossed in the film that I was taken aback when it stopped.

It’s got a brilliant, Oscar-winning script. Like The Big Lebowski, it’s full of swearing, but it’s funny, offbeat, and realistically fleshes out the characters. They all have their own little mannerisms, and there seems to be a streak of gentle comedy created by the quirks of the area - everyone says “yah” a lot, and everyone is just so polite all the time. I also remember there’s a nice little joke about a guy who couldn’t afford personalised number plates.

But it’s strange because alongside all this gentle humour, there’s a lot of very black comedy and strong violence. We laugh at a guy getting chopped in the neck with an axe, but at the same time the film doesn’t shy away from or disguise the bloodiness of the violence - the scene with the woodchipper is bizarre and surreal (and based on a real life event) but also pretty disgusting.

Performances are fantastic all-round. William H. Macy, as everyone should now by now, is great in everything he does, mostly because he plays the same sort of character in every film, so he has it down to a tee. Nobody plays bumbling losers better than Macy. It’s similar with Steve Buscemi. According to the trivia track on the DVD, the Coens wrote the part with Buscemi in mind, and that’s clear to see - fast-talking, hilarious and “funny looking”. Peter Stormare, as Buscemi’s silent foil, is suitably menacing.

Best of all though is Frances McDormand, who won the Best Actress Oscar for her warm performance. She’s a joy to watch - playing a completely normal, everyday character to whom we can all relate, and she provides the heart of what would otherwise be quite a cold, detached film. I would also imagine she captures the typical mid-west American accent very well indeed, but I wouldn’t really know. Either way, she’s completely realistic, natural, and very funny and likeable at all times.

The film also looks superb - expect lots of bleak landscapes and lonely figures walking through vast snowy plains - and has an excellent, haunting score composed by Carter Burwell, which adds an extra touch of seriousness and depth to the film, and makes it quite poignant in places.

Overall, Fargo is a film I would definitely recommend to anyone, apart from kids of course. It’s hard to know how to bill it, and indeed you can’t really pigeon-hole it because it switches from comedy to drama, and often occupies a strange state somewhere in between. Either way, it’s a very enjoyable experience, and displays the Coens' unique, strange but undeniable talents to their fullest.
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Fargo can be bought online in its simplest form for £5.45 from www.filmnight.com, or £5.99 from www.hmv.co.uk for the Special Edition.
You can also get it in a nice little box set with The Usual Suspects and Silence of the Lambs - they're not particularly alike, but they're all great films.
I’m reviewing the film only, not the DVD.

Directed by: Ethan Coen

Starring:

William H. Macy … Jerry Lundegaard
Frances McDormand … Marge Gunderson
Steve Buscemi … Carl
Peter Stormare … Gaear

Classification: 18 (strong violence, language and sexuality)

Running time: 98 minutes

Year: 1996

My rating: 9/10

Summary: A fantastic comedy drama - watch it!