Dark comedy crime story

Rating: Null/10 (12 January 2016)

An inept car salesman hires two thugs to kidnap his wife in order to get money from his rich father-in-law. Unfortunately he should have hired better thugs as they end up messing the whole thing up, which in turn causes the local law enforcement to become involved. From that setting we get a crime story worthy of being directed by the Coen brothers, full of awkward characters, everyday situations and hilariously dark scenes of blood, gore and rage.
The two thugs, played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare, are what make this film work for me. Usually cinema tends to depict criminals as violent and lethal people, and these two are that as well, but usually these kinds of characters are not depicted to be quite so out of their depth. It is made clear very soon that while these two may have done these kinds of things before, neither is what you'd call the sharpest knife in the drawer. And they're both so idiotic in their own ways. It's fascinating to watch them live their miserable criminal lives and utterly failing at it. And yet they remain threatening throughout the entire film. Not because they're criminal masterminds, but because they're morons with no moral inhibitions.
William H. Macy as Jerry Lundegaard, the car salesman, is also a fun character, who contrasts nicely with the two thugs. He's attempting to become a criminal, but he's even worse at it than his associates and every scene where he needs to pull off any kind conviction about his innocence is absolutely hilarious because well, you can guess.
Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson, the Minnesotan police chief in charge of investigations, has also received a lot of praise for her work. Personally I found her to be a touch boring, though I do admit that my expectations we're a bit too high. She's just so utterly chipper and optimistic all the time that it seems unrealistic. It's a nice contrast to her opponents, but it still means that I didn't find her that interesting. Still, I do like her character on a conceptual basis, and the performance itself is objectively fine. Not just my personal cup of tea.
All in all Fargo is a nice watch if you're into dark comedy and can laugh at people being dismembered and people giving into their nefarious impulses. If you've liked any of the other Coen films, you're going to like this one as well.