This Is Why We Go To Movies

Rating: 10/10 (30 October 2005)

Spoilers To me the interesting thing about the movie is the introduction, about half way through the movie, of the Gunderson family. Until that point, the movie was a very well done thriller, reminding me strongly of the Coen Brothers' first film, Blood Simple, in the way it followed the long, obvious unraveling of a crime, every little mistake being far more obvious to the viewers than the characters. And then suddenly, the movie has a moral center to contrast the darkness of the plot.
At first Margie seems to be almost a cartoon rather than a person, but what you realize over the course of the movie is that what she is is human: good at her job, loving to her husband, kind to her coworkers and subordinates, just... nice. And she wraps up the crime at the end with a great little speech emphasizing the human view, without us even realizing that it is that... For a little bit of money. And here you are. And it's a beautiful day. And, well, I just don't understand it. Now that you put it that way, neither do I.
This is a movie that is almost uniformly excellent; the cast, headed by Macy, MacDormand and Buscemi, is perfect - I cannot think of any other actors who would be better for the lead roles. The script is spot on in the way it sees and develops its characters, and the way people actually talk. The Coen Brothers' taste for the quirky qua quirky is much more muted here, but it still adds just the right touch of the other to keep the movie riveting. And the cinematography catches the vast empty whiteness of the northern winter perfectly.
Everything that brings me to movies is in here: great acting, great dialogs, surprises, amusement, shock, beauty, harshness, humanity.