Fargo (1996)

FARGO (1996)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: 4 stars

For better or worse, the Coen Brothers remains the most wildly original filmmakers in the cinema world right now. Being an advocate of their edgy, brilliant films like "Blood Simple" and "Barton Fink" and less of an admirer of "Raising Arizona" and "The Hudsucker Proxy," I always look forward to their next project. Their few failures are more interesting than the mediocre Hollywood movies that succeed. "Fargo" is another brilliant film in the Coens canon and a pleasant (or unpleasant) return to the dread and pessimism that "Blood Simple" wrought with an added sharp edginess and deliberately black comic humor that can make one wince.

"Fargo" stars the remarkable William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard, a Minnesota car salesman who is in deep financial debt. To get himself out of debt, he schemes to have his wife kidnapped by a couple of scummy lowlifes so that he can acquire the ransom demand from his wealthy father-in-law. Once Jerry gets the money, he can split it with the lowlifes for a percentage and pay off his debt. This is easier said than done and in the world of the Coens, nothing ever works out as it should.

"Fargo" is directed by Joel Coen and written by Ethan and Joel Coen, and the film certainly benefits by not being as simplistic or inane as any murder-of-the-week TV movie. "Fargo" has gobs of wit and malicious black humor but its main strength is derived from its sense of humanity. The humanity comes from Frances McDormand ("Blood Simple") as the local police chief, Marge Gunderson, who is very pregnant and is confronted with a triple homicide in the icy, cold, dour town of Brainerd. Marge is a strong-willed woman married to an almost sedate husband and would-be artist whose biggest concern is to paint pictures of ducks on three-cent stamps. Marge tries to solve the homicide case on her own (most of the police department is quite incompetent), and the trail of corpses leads to Fargo, North Dakota and back to Brainerd where she runs into a wild assortment of characters. They include bimbos who describe one of the killers as "funny-looking," a lonely long-time admirer of Marge's, overly friendly waitresses and hotel employees, a tough-as-nails Native American who vouched for the kidnappers, and eventually the sneaky Lundegaard. They all speak in a high-pitched Minnesota twang that includes phrases like, "yah, sure," "ah, jeez," "you darn' tootin," and "well, yah."

Mos of the truly black humor in "Fargo" centers around the two inept lowlife kidnappers (both played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare). Everything goes wrong from the start when they kidnap Lundegaard's wife and kill three people along the way, not to mention a reversal in Lundegaard's plans with the kidnapping. Buscemi is the "funny-looking man" trying desperately to get the ransom and threatens Lundegaard by asking for more money. The reticent Stormare kills a police officer and just about everyone else who gets in the line of fire. These nitwits both altercate and fume with the kind of erratic energy that you can only find in a Coens film.

The performances are faultless to a tee, particularly Frances McDormand who gives Marge humanity, a wry sense of humor and an emotional control that is both calm and cautious, even when she sees a body being shredded in a woodchipper. It is clearly the role of her career (she won the Best Actress Oscar for it). Steve Buscemi is as always gleefully riotous as one of the hired kidnappers who becomes too frantic when he talks. Peter Stormare ("Damage") plays the other kidnapper who is silent and eerily menacing. Kudos must also go to William H. Macy ("Oleanna") who shows both fecklessness and cowardice with equal skill.

"Fargo" has everything a great film should have - great writing and great cinematography. The sharp characterizations and ostensibly playful dialogue, full of misunderstandings, stupid mistakes and accidents, brings a creepy veneer to the whole film. It is also fascinating how the film shifts beautifully from Lundegaard's predicament to Marge's investigation with terrific balance.

The cinematography by Roger Deakins superbly employs the use of pure white (snowy landscapes, cloudy skies) thus evoking the ironic twists and turns of this chilling noir tale - a sort of film blanc than noir. There's one dazzling overhead shot where we see Lundegaard fiddling and banging the windshield of his car with an ice scraper and all that surrounds him is the frozen hell of Minnesota. Shots like these are abundantly used and reinforce an emotionally blank feeling to the audience - after seeing the film, you'll literally feel cold as ice.

"Fargo" does leave you feeling cold but it is never less than enthralling, chillingly violent, funny and entertaining. Marge and Lundegaard are two of the most original characters I've seen on the screen in quite some time. The brilliance of "Fargo" as a satire and black comedy is that it never steps too far over the line into exaggeration and comic buffoonery. In that respect, Marge and Lundegaard could have been presented as eccentric caricatures. The Coens have found a way of humanizing the oddest of people in the oddest of situations.

For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://moviething.com/members/movies/faust/JATMindex.shtml

E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at faustus_08520@yahoo.com or at Faust668@aol.com

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X-RT-RatingText: 4/4