FARGO. Directed by Joel Coen; written by Joel and Ethan Coen; produced by Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Ethan Coen and John Cameron for Gramercy. Starring William H. Macy and Frances McDormand. Rated R.
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If you're wondering where Fargo is, exactly, well, it's smack dab in the middle of black comedy heaven, that's where.
Now this kind of movie is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. But if you're a fan of really quirky, really out-there dark humor, then you probably already know that the Coen brothers are masters of the form. I've known it since seeing their debut flick, Blood Simple, in 1984. And so when you hear Fargo being called one of their best, you know you're in for a treat.
Fargo has a storyline wacky enough that claims of its being based on real-life events might just be true. But the best thing about it is its odd assortment of memorable characters. Used-car salesman Jerry (Macy) is in money trouble (he's been fooling around with GMAC loan funds) and comes up with what doubtless seems, to his definitely challenged intelligence, a wonderful idea. Get an ex-con mechanic friend to recommend some guys who can kidnap his wife, whose father is rolling in dough. Tell the kidnappers the ransom is, say, $80,000, but tell Dad it's $1 million, and pocket the difference. Cool, eh?
Of course, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see hundreds of ways this scheme could go wrong. But I bet Fargo will find a few that you didn't think of. To start with, the two kidnappers (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) don't get along too well (one smokes, the other doesn't, etc.) and one of them, at least, has definite sociopathic leanings. Jerry is reluctant to abandon the plan, though, and his increasingly desperate situation gives us ample opportunities to admire Macy's great gift for playing hysteria in a matter- of-fact way.
But Jerry's not even the best of Fargo's stable of wonderful characters! When the kidnapping plot first starts to go sour, a few people are murdered near Brainerd, Minn., whose chief of police is seven-months-pregnant Marge Gunderson (McDormand). The most delightfully original detective since Columbo, Marge is unflaggingly cheerful but darned hard to put anything over on. Her scenes with Jerry are priceless, but, then, so is her whole performance.
Fargo lays the violence on a bit too thick, but other than that, it's just about a perfect movie. From the cinematography, which makes the bleak Minnesota landscape as important a character as any of the people; to the script full of humorous asides and unexpected twists; to those incredible, and well-acted, characters—black humor heaven, indeed.
April 24, 1996