Fargo

As someone who was born and raised in Minnesota, I've always had an interesting relationship with the film Fargo. I initially saw it when it was first released on home video and was immediately taken with the more outrageous aspects of the film (I won't elaborate so as to avoid spoilers). Then, as the film became more well known and the whole Minnesota accent that is playfully exaggerated in the film became a thing with people I kind of distanced myself from it a bit. After all, we don't really talk like that here, do we? Of course we do. Then, finally, as I got older I wholeheartedly embraced the film. 

Jerry Lundegaard (played by William H. Macy) takes a meeting with two low-life thugs, Carl (played by Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (played by Peter Stormare). He wants them to kidnap his wife, Jean (played by Kristin Rudrud) to hold her for ransom so he can get some much needed money out of his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (played by Harve Presnell). The two goons carry out the crime, but things go south remarkably quickly when they are pulled over by a State Trooper. The Trooper winds up dead, along with two witnesses who drive by. Called in to investigate the three shootings is Brainerd Police Chief Marge Gunderson (played by Frances McDormand), a sweet natured woman who happens to also be seven months pregnant with her first child. As she slowly pieces of the still unfolding crime together, Jerry is finding himself trapped in an ill-conceived scheme that is quickly spiraling out of control.  

There is a lot to love about Fargo. Joel and Ethan Coen manage to craft a unique crime story filtered through their unique twisted humor to create a story that is so thoroughly Minnesota, whether we want to admit it or not. There is so much that rang true for me, from the typical suburban life, depicted in the early scenes in the Lundegaard house or the moment when Marge goes outside to start up her squad car only to come back in and announce it needs a jump because of the cold left me with laughs of recognition. Then to pair this familiarity with a hard edged crime story that by the end leaves several dead bodies in it's wake makes for an enticingly strange brew of a film that I think only someone like the Coen brothers could have truly make work. 

It's the characters that really make the film work though. You have the chipper, intelligent and kind Marge, who throughout the film is a thoroughly competent police officer and then is played off a situation that includes two dangerous criminals, a heavily stressed weasel of a family man and a growing body count of people. But yet, nothing really seems to shake her. As she examines crime scenes, remarking on the clues she finds or that one of the victims looks like a nice enough of a fella says a lot about her character. Marge is a big key part in why I fell in love with this film so much. I love the little touches with her character, her relationship with her husband Norm. She is such a warm character in the backdrop of a frozen tundra of Minnesota. Her best moment, the one that sums up the whole character and the movie is a whole, is at the end of the film. She is talking to one of the criminals in the back of her squad car, waiting for back up to arrive. She runs down the list of his various crimes and then says, with more than a little down home wisdom, "And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life then a little bit of money, you know. Don't you know that? And here you are, and it's a beautiful day. Well, I just don't understand it."  

On the other side of the film, we also have William H Macy as the in way over his head Jerry who no matter how bad things get refuses to turn back or try to give up. He watches his harebrained scheme to fake a kidnapping to get a chunk of money out of his father in law go spectacularly up in flames but yet keeps trying to come out ahead and keep control until it finally reaches a point where he no longer can and he discovers he never really did have control. Macy is the perfect Ying to Marge's Yang. She is calm, assured and competent while Macy is a sputtering, nervous wreck of a man, spiraling out of control. Marge and Jerry have two meetings in the film and both times just her mere presence is enough to turn him into a near basket case. It's a fantastic performance by William H. Macy and certainly one that made him famous. 

Finally, we have our two knucklehead criminals, the motormouth Carl who never shuts up and the mostly silent and very deadly Gaear, who only occasionally mutters short sentences, such as wanting pancakes. They are two violent and idiotic criminals who leave a path of destruction in their wake at every turn. They are the perfect storm of bad decisions that only succeed in making a bad plan become even worse. 

Joel and Ethan Coen perfectly capture the winter landscape of Minnesota with some fantastic cinematography from Roger Deakins. It's partnered with such a unique and wonderful Carter Burwell score that I can only describe as achingly beautiful and fits the film perfectly. They pull all this different parts of a tale, which they jokingly refer to as a true story at the beginning of the film (it's really not), and create something wholly original that you're never quite sure how it will play out and fill it with such unique and colorful characters while perfectly capturing their home state of Minnesota quite well, perhaps even a little too well some would argue. 

Overall, Fargo may just be the Coen Brothers' masterpiece. Now that I've said that, I can just hear all the Lebowski Achievers crying foul (don't worry, I'll get to that other comedic masterpiece later). But as a whole film, from beginning to end, it is their most fulfilling film for me personally. Of course, a lot of that has to do with Frances McDormand's iconic and well deserved Oscar winning turn as Marge, who is an absolutely fantastic character in a really great film.