Fargo is about a regular guy named Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy). Jerry has money problems. So he does what any reasonable person would do, have his wife kidnapped for ransom money by two crooks (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare). Just a regular thing anyone would do. Except the cut-and-dry plan turns sour and Jerry get's thrown into a whole murderous mess he never wanted to be in. It doesn't help that Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), a pregnant police officer, is very persistent on solving the case. Yeah, it's not looking too good for Mr. Lundegaard. So, as you may or may not know, I love Joel and Ethan Coen (aka The Coen Brothers). One of my favorite movies of all time is The Big Lebowski. I loved True Grit and A Serious Man. Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading were hilarious too. And I of course am looking forward to their newest film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Fargo is no exception. I loved it. It's not their best film (The Big Lebowski obviously takes that spot), but it comes close. The Coen's have a knack for making some dark situations very comedic. Like when they scatter the ashes in The Big Lebowski, or pretty much everything that happens in A Serious Man. Fargo is what you'd call a black comedy. It takes uncomfortable and sometimes very grisly situations and makes them bitingly funny. At one point Frances McDormand's character sees a bloody dead corpse and seems repulsed, but she simply regards it as "morning sickness". I found myself laughing at a lot of the nice dark humor here. It's really no wonder The Coen Bros. won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for this! The cast here certainly helps deliver some of the hilarity here. William H. Macy is pretty good here as the troubled family man caught up in the mess. He, like most of the cast, nails the Minnesota accent. Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi also give some nice performances as the idiotic criminals. Yet, all of their great performances seem like nothing compared to Frances McDormand's hilarious (and Oscar winning) cop. She does the best job in the entire film and gives some of the most memorable lines. Really what Fargo does so well is take some strange (and very cold) slice of the country, and present this great crime comedy that's done so well on so many levels. Even if you don't love the film, you cna at least appreciate how it's an example of damn good filmmaking. I feel like I definitely got something out of it. Fargo is the kind of movie I'd want to watch again. Just to get a fuller sense of the story and pick up all of the meaning. It's also just an enjoyable film that I'd enjoy viewing again. It's bloody, strange, dark, but overall, it is good! The tagline for Fargo is that "a lot can happen in the middle of nowhere". A lot did. And that's what makes this movie good. At times while watching it I questioned whether it was going to be good at all. By the end, al those doubts had been put to rest. I really liked Fargo. Happy Throwback Thursday and Happy Viewing guys! You can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies.
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