Darn Tootin'!!!

Rating: 10/10 (16 December 2006)

"Fargo" has another character - that North Midwestern accent, with its Scandinavian lilt, its folksy charm and its disarming presence in practically every scene in the movie. This film is a hoot! I agree completely with Ebert's beautiful review. It is fascinating, heartfelt, true to character, place and situation, extremely funny, and sometimes painfully violent. I would only add that as an entertainment, it is one of the most disorienting experiences a viewer can find in the cinema. It is fascinating to watch this film back-to-back with the Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple", a great film in its own right, but which seems like the preparation for their masterpiece, "Fargo". The tension is almost unrelieved in "Blood Simple". But the ending violence is so over-the-top, that the viewer suddenly realizes that they are really being sneakily had by the filmmakers and that the joke is on them. In "Fargo", the tension is also unrelieved. But here the film starts with the audience being "in" on the outrageousness of the events and the almost cartoon-like characters with their outrageous accents. But still we don't know sometimes whether to laugh or feel chilled (with the events AND that bleak Minnesota winter!)
The audience experiences two strands of tension - the crime, and Jerry Lundegaard's exponentially growing nightmare. Who doesn't identify with the moment when in total exasperation at the unfolding of events, Jerry has that tantrum, trashing his desk. Granted we haven't all had our spouses kidnapped for money! But we are right there with Jerry, feeling his helplessness. What a tour-de-force of acting from William H. Macy, with France McDormand's human-wise Marge, and Steven Buscemi's SadSack crook creating and leading one of the greatest acting ensembles to grace an American film in years. The audience thinks from the very beginning, that that bizarre Steven Buscemi sure seems "funny-lookin" in this movie. And when that phrase is uttered in two of the funniest moments of the film, we in the audience laugh, knowing the film-makers are actually making fun of us at these priceless moments. We may be "in" on the jokes, but the film-maker"s are absolutely onto us - and they have fun in letting us know that. Frances McDormand's Marge, with her genuine, caring persona, a smile that lights up the screen, and the most-musical of accents - absolutely nailing the rhythms and cadences of that beautifully distinctive speech (little-known outside that part of the United States until this film came along) is a revelation in this movie. It makes the audience want to see any film she has ever been in before!
This is a movie that became an instant classic, plunging the viewer into an alternate universe of feelings, situations and characters that they identify with, are repulsed by, laugh at, and ultimately embrace. You betcha!!!