Cinematography:
Roger DeakinsComposer:
Carter BurwellCast:
Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell, Peter Stormare, Kristin Rudrüd, Tony Denman, Gary Houston, Sally Wingert, Melissa Peterman (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Jerry Lundegaard is a car salesman in Minneapolis who has gotten himself into debt and is so desperate for money that he hires two thugs to kidnap his own wife. Jerry will collect the ransom from her wealthy father, paying the thugs a small portion and keeping the rest to satisfy his debts. The scheme collapses when the thugs shoot a state trooper and two innocent bystanders in rural Minnesota, drawing local Police Chief Marge Gunderson into her first homicide investigation. At first unaware that the homicides are connected to a Minneapolis kidnapping, Chief Gunderson draws closer to Jerry Lundegaard as his situation further unravels. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (15)
When things go to sh**, they really go to sh**. And nobody can tell you about that better than Steve "Funny in General" Buscemi. And maybe also everyone else who had anything to do with the events from Moose Lake, including the pregnant sheriff, the pissing-himself sales manager, and the inarticulate lunatic with a passion for woodchippers. And for what? For a little bit of money?
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The Coen brothers’ complacent violation of standards and correctness is a joy to behold. However, in their simple world with the highest concentration of bizarre characters per square meter, it is the biggest oddballs who stand out. Yet they are the ones who (thanks to the type-accurate actors) manage to win the audience's sympathy almost immediately. It's not that the number of dead increases at a disproportionate rate, and it's not that you get rid of them in, for example, a branch shredder. It's actually about the fact that the degree of exaggeration is not limited in any way, and it depends only on the benevolence of each individual in terms of how much they enjoy their poetic (the amazing cinematography by Roger Deakins!) constructed world full of immoral behavior and the most diverse characters, in some cases taken to the point of caricature. These are things audiences will enjoy. Form and content go hand in hand in this case and after a moment's reflection, I have to give the film five stars. The Oscar for Frances McDormand is quite a mystery to me, but otherwise Peter Stormare rules forever!
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I got back home from school this afternoon, frozen to the bone (this September has been quite chilly), I sat at the computer and put on Fargo. Big mistake, my teeth are still chattering. That said, the film never bored me, the Coen brothers’ direction is so distinctive that it always feels like a refreshment after a lot of bland movies. The basic plot structure is not that original, what makes the story unforgettable is the place it’s set, which is inhabited by maybe one normal character for every one hundred comical figures, and the very dark humour.
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Technically, it’s quite skillful (brutal action scenes), musically impressively minimalist, and in the second half the film is also suspenseful and entertaining, but the main problem of my criticism is probably in the direction. I'm not the type who drools over humor of the Coens, quite the opposite. It gets on my nerves and some scenes felt like a light rip-off of Tarantino's style.
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I have a problem with Fargo. It contains a dozen unforgettable scenes, great characters and one of Carter Burwell’s best soundtracks, but it tries so hard to be a caricature that it loses touch with reality. It thus loses some of its seriousness, which was supposed to be its key element, and remains only an original film curiosity. I spent a long time vacillating between three and four stars. I settled on four, but only for the individual scenes. The atmosphere and omnipresent snow are not enough to make a movie complex and relatable.
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