I agree with Roger Ebert on this one...

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2006)

He calls it an "American Masterpiece" and I can't say I disagree with him. Fargo truly is one brilliant piece of film-making, the absolute top of the Coen's mountain (before slipping a bit with Lebowski and then slip-slipping downward after that). This complicated screenplay about a hostage-taking-for-hire is pure brilliance from the start, and it's the acting that takes it one step beyond that. William Macy and Francis McDormand's characters are in my mind two of the greatest characters ever developed for film. Macy's Jerry Lundegaard has all the best lines though, and Macy is tres funny, even when he's giving dead serious lines. This is a movie I can watch over and over again (and in fact, I have)