Fargo

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2016)

My brief encounter with the Coen brothers has been reminiscent of a roller coaster. I loathed The Big Lebowski but quite enjoyed Barton Fink. Fargo has given me the inspiration I've been lacking to deepen my relationship with their films. The 1996 crime drama was a fun descent into their take on a "true crime" story. Weaving the tale of an inept crime organizer, trying to make his wife better by having his wife kidnapped for ransom money paid by his father-in-law, Fargo captures what it means to live in a town small enough to induce claustrophobia, and how suffocating an unfulfilled life truly is. Starring William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, and Frances McDormand, Fargo remains an audience favorite from the Coen brothers even 20 years after its release.
Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is a car salesman, working at his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson's (Harve Presnell) dealership, unhappy with his current situation. He has an idea for an investment that he believes his wealthy father-in-law, who doesn't much care for him, will be willing to invest in. Jerry painstakingly goes over all the particulars of the deal with Wade only to be shut out when Wade decides to take the investment on with a partner, rather than give Jerry the initial capital to get it started himself. Devastated and humiliated, Jerry hatches a plan to have his wife kidnapped. It will all work, Jerry believes, by requesting in ransom more than will be used to pay off the captors, leaving Jerry the remaining money to invest how he pleases. The operation should be easy enough and will avoid all the "messy stuff" because Jerry is able to get the names of a couple people that will pull the kidnapping off from a man he works with at the dealership. Everything is going to plan until Wade refuses to let Jerry handle any of the particulars, vowing to take over the money exchange himself. Jerry's entire life begins to unwind with that decision as he finds himself in an even graver decision than he was before.
On a personal note, it was fun to see William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi in a film together, as I spent a majority of my youth confusing the two actors with the other ( I don't know how, by the way). I spent most of the movie in complete awe of the way it was shot. Great emphasis is paid to mise-en-scene, throughout the film feeling quite claustrophobic when needed, and isolating when the script calls for it. As it turns out, despite the title card in the beginning of the film, not much in the Coen brother's Fargo is actually a true crime story, but as they noted, "you don't need a true crime to have a true crime story."