Fargo: A Review

FARGO

Murder and mayhem were never so endearing and polite as they are in Fargo. This blend of regional comedy with a dark criminal heart paints a very curious portrait of America that seems from a whole other world. Strong performances and an almost whimsical manner elevate Fargo to being a simultaneously amusing and wicked film.

In 1987 Minnesota, car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is facing major financial trouble. Rather than go to his wealthy father-in-law Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell) for money, Jerry decides to have criminals that he found through one of his employees kidnap his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrud). He will then take half of the ransom money for himself and give half to the two abductors.

The two abductors are Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare). Carl, the more talkative and brains of the operation, sets things into motion with the more taciturn Grimsrud. They manage to abduct Jean, albeit clumsily. The abduction runs into more trouble when they are pulled over by a state trooper. Carl's efforts to talk his way out of the situation are going nowhere. With that, Grimsrud kills the trooper, as well as an unfortunate couple that stumbled onto the first murder.

This brings in Sheriff Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) to investigate the crimes. She is heavily pregnant, but she is also an extremely shrewd policewoman. Marge quickly sees that the patrolman and couple were murdered because they came upon something. Deducing that the patrolman's killer was the last person that he met on official business, Marge works her way back.

That eventually leads to Lundegaard. He is becoming more frustrated that his already harebrained scheme is not only going off the rails but is now involving multiple murders. Among those murders is that of Wade, who balks at the idea of letting Jerry deliver the ransom money and gets gunned down for his efforts. As both Marge and the walls begin closing in on him, Jerry finds himself way over his head. Will Carl and Gaear still pull it off? Will Marge get to the bottom of this disturbing crime spree?

Fargo manages a very delicate balancing act. It shows the majority of characters as quirky without making them look silly or cartoonish. I would even go so far as to say that Fargo, for all the accents and almost excessive politeness that the characters have, is quite respectful of them and their world. Even Jerry is quite polite and pleasant. Yes, he planned to steal from his father-in-law, put his wife in danger and became an accessory to murder. However, he was never intentionally malicious. 

We establish this right away when he meets up with Carl and Gaear. Told that he is late by an hour, he immediately apologizes for the confusion in time, insisting that he was told the wrong time. Throughout Fargo, Jerry is pleasant and polite. This is a world where swearing is almost unheard of, making the rare time that Jerry does break out into a vulgarity the most shocking thing that he does. 

Fargo has, I think, affection for the characters. Writer/directors Joel & Ethan Coen make Fargo at times almost a documentary into a whole other world inside the United States. These people speak in a peculiar way. They are almost always polite and courteous. They seem at times almost innocent. However, they are not fools. 

Marge Gunderson is certainly nobody's fool. She is the intellectual and moral core in Fargo. Yes, she does say, "Ya betcha" often. However, she quickly deduces that the tags on the car the deputy had pulled over are not the licence plates. Instead, the DLR stand for "Dealer", meaning that the car must have come from a car lot. Marge maintains a very pleasant demeanor, but underneath is a highly intelligent woman who is able to put things together.

Frances McDormand is excellent as Marge. She makes her a very loving, caring person. Her scenes with John Carrol Lynch as her painter husband Norm show a woman who loves and supports her man. She is never cross or angry. Yet she never makes her sincerity and politeness into a sign of idiocy. She is the intelligent Rose Nylund: a competent and fiercely smart figure who is also very, very nice. 

McDormand won Best Actress for Fargo. However, I was surprised at how relatively small her role is. She does not appear in Fargo until 33 minutes into the film. Judging by my calculations, and I grant that I might be off, McDormand is on screen for a total of 35 minutes. Sometimes, she is on screen for maybe one or two minutes.

William H. Macy, conversely, is on screen much longer. Yet, McDormand won for Lead Actress and Macy was nominated for Supporting Actor. I would have put them in reverse categories given their actual screentime. It is puzzling that Macy was seen as a Supporting Actor when he was the catalyst for the story. He also gave a very strong performance as Jerry Lundegaard. Macy makes Jerry into a schmuck (to use a good Yiddish term), nowhere near a master criminal but a criminal, nonetheless. He is again, remarkably endearing as Jerry, a man who never really rages but sees how dangerously out of control things have gotten. He is a sad sack, but a deceitful one.

Fargo is a well-acted film throughout. Buscemi and Stormare are excellent as the sleazy yet bumbling criminals. They are cruel and evil (Gaear's final act is shocking but mercifully not graphic) but they keep to the tone of the wacky procedures. 

Fargo also gives us a glimpse into a very curious world. The film never ridicules the characters or their lives even when things do look odd to an outsider. When Jerry tries to comfort his somewhat rebellious son Scotty (Tony Denman), we see an accordion on his bed. When Jerry closes the door, we see a poster for The Accordion King. Fargo is the type of world where teens would listen to Lawrence Welk unironically. You can laugh at a teen both having an accordion and a poster for a lederhosen-wearing Accordion King. You don't, because Fargo never sets them up to be odd. We also see this when a young man has learned of his mother's abduction. The film manages to keep the balance between silly and serious well. 

The people in the world of Fargo speak peculiarly. They have near-permanent smiles on their faces. Yet, for all the sincere manners ripe for parody, Fargo eschews mocking them. Marge Gunderson may have an unfamiliar accent and an endearing manner. However, she has a mind that solved the crime and a morality that reveals deep disappointment. Talking to the criminal that she brought in, she tells him that all of this was for what, a little money. She adds, shaking her head, that she doesn't understand it.

Fargo has excellent production work. Roger Deakins' cinematography and Carter Burwell's score (the former being one of Fargo's seven nominations) depict this eccentric but sincere world.

Fargo is able to make one chuckle while still shocking in this allegedly based on a true story. It is certainly worth watching, you betcha. 

DECISION: A-