lightweight tragicomedy, but good fun

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2006)

I had a great time watching this movie. I haven't laughed like that in front of the TV for ages. But...once it was over, it was over. In my opinion, it's really over-hyped - it's the story of Jeff (William H. Macy) who is in deep financial trouble...so he pays some small-time crooks (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife for part of a ransom he will extract from his wife's rich father. When the deed is done and the crooks are hauling Mrs. Jeff to their hideout, a cop stops them for not having the right tab on their car, and is shot. Uh-oh, two innocent bystanders noticed! Boom-boom, dead too. About four or five other people have gone to Jesus by the end, and the movie centers around Marge (Frances McDormand), the Fargo police chief trying to track down the killers. Her performance was actually pretty good as a sensitive woman who is intentionally oblivious, refusing to let the horrible things she must witness seep in and bring her down. Since Steve Buscemi is here too, you can predict the tone of the comedy, which is very dryly hilarious - the point of the movie is to contrast tragedy with comedy for a haunting and bittersweet ending. An interesting idea, but the tragedy wasn't tragic enough, it was disaffected in an odd way. Normally gruesome scenes are trivialized in a way that I don't like. It would have been very powerful had you just felt a bit more for the characters. As was, it was slightly off-kilter and I felt it left you with nothing. Great fun, however.