Fargo (1996)

 

This film has gotten quite a lot of accolades. All deserved. No hyperbole. It's a quaint, darkly sarcastic comedic story that is fully character driven and just surfs on the waves of the talent involved. 

No really: the actors are all most excellent and their performances are what makes this one worth watching. Especially Frances McDormand nails it.

This is the story of Jerry Lundegaard, a complete loser who works in a car dealership and who has debts thanks to his immense ineptitude for - well - everything. He comes up with a harebrained scheme to have his wife kidnapped, pay for it with money from his rich father-in-law and keep a large chunk of that money to pay off his debts. 

Too bad he hired two complete schmucks to take care of the kidnapping. Well okay: one schmuck and one psychopath. The simple plan immediately goes topsy-turvy when one of the guys kills three people outside of the small town of Brainerd. Hence, local police officer Marge Gunderson is on the case and she is quite a bit more clever than people would give her credit for. 

The remainder of the story is pretty much things going south in ways that will leave you flabbergasted at how incompetent and stupid people can be. 

It really is a joy to watch.

Now, this is indeed a comedy of sorts. Is it belly-roaring, laugh-out-loud funny? No, but that wasn't the point. But you will smirk at the misfortunes of the stupid people that think they can commit crimes yet are such bumbling nincompoops you can see the problems just build and build. In the hands of lesser directors and actors, this could have easily become unbearable really fast, but not so here. Everyone brings their A-game. William Macy is infuriatingly stupid and desperate as Jerry Lundegaard; Steve Buscemi gets to blow his top when things go south; Peter Stormare is perfect as the psychopath (a role which would probably push him into playing more of these wackos); but Frances McDormand is incredibly endearing and fun as Marge Gunderson. Her pregnancy adds a nice touch, because she can play with it and her doe-eyed expression makes people think she's more naive than she actually is. 

Yes, you do have to get used to that overuse of the "Yah.", but that is a Minnesota/Twin Cities-thing, apparently. The dialogue is really well written and it just shines in the small things. The neighbour who pretty much talks about the kidnappers to the police officer while shovelling snow is so realistic and realistically average, it's poetry. 

Because the film is a fairly slow burn and not that much happens until almost the end, some people might dismiss this, but they would be missing out on a darkly humoristic and cleverly written character piece. 

Watch it. Yah.