Fargo

Year: 1996
Running time: 98 minutes
Certificate: 18
Language: English
Screenplay: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare

Marge is on the case.

The Coen brothers are well known for their clouding of the truth (just look at the interviews they gave for A Serious Man, in particular the questions regarding it being somewhat autobiographical), so the fact that Fargo opens with ‘A true story’ should be taken with a truckload of salt. It almost certainly isn’t true. What it is, however, is fabulous, a trait shared with many Coens' films.

Jerry Lundergaard (William H. Macy) is a below-average car salesman who, desperate for cash, arranges for the kidnap of his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud) in order to score some ransom money from her father Wade (Harve Presnell), a belligerent and successful businessman. The two men Lundergaard hires are Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and they are anything but competent and things begin to spiral badly out of control almost from the beginning. Showalter and Grimsrud are not at all alike - one talks too much, the other hardly says anything, and it is clear from the outset their plan is doomed to failure. Grimsrud commits a shocking and grisly murder on the road at night, scaring his partner in crime, leaving the bodies for the police to find the next morning.

It's then we meet the star of the show, heavily pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). She has such a sunny disposition despite the biting cold and ghastly murder trails she cleverly follows all the way back to Lundergaard, that you can't fail to love her. The accents are distinctive but don't get annoying, being just another Coens peculiarity that adds to the appeal, like the bizarre character names.

How do you ever hope to find it again Carl?

It’s a joy to watch the great cast in every blackly comic scene, and everyone delivers – William H. Macy excels as usual as the bumbling Lundergaard, and also Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare as the nervous, angry Showalter and the quietly psychotic Grimsrud, but the standout is definitely the wonderful Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson.

As the plan unravels, things go from bad to worse as the desperate Showalter leaves a trail of bodies and buries his share of the money under the snow, before realising the landscape is so unchanging he's likely never to find it again. The Coens do enjoy killing off Buscemi's characters whenever he turns up in one of their films, and Showalter's end in Fargo is perhaps his most memorable Coens death yet.

It is also filmed exquisitely. The bleak all-white scenery is striking, often leaving the screen bereft of detail – an effect which is strangely beautiful and illuminates how alone and removed from everyday reality these characters are.

Near perfect.

Score: 9/10

Most people, including Roger Ebert and David at The Hollywood Reporter seem to agree regarding Fargo's brilliance.