Fact is often stranger than fiction...

Rating: Null/10 (29 February 2000)

After a four year wait, I finally picked Fargo off the shelf and rented a film that seemed, from many film critic's opinions, and from the Oscars distributed that year by the Film Academy, worth watching. And I wasn't disappointed. This is by no means an action-packed, fast-paced, roller-coaster ride of a crime thriller. But, as the opening credits point out, this is a true story, and the Coen Brothers have respectfully and bravely left the story to tell itself, the way it really happened. And it is this that makes it work.
The fascination of being told a true story held my attention through the beginning, and through the building of the quirky characters, and by this time the film had become fascinating in itself. Through the chaotic life of an unhappy, desperate family man lured into staging his own wife's kidnapping to pay off debts, we get a charming insight into the simple but happy lives of the police officers of Brainerd, Minnesota and the chance to feed off the humour created by their unfazed, nonchalant attitude towards life and all that it throws at us, as they amble patiently along the murderous trail of crimes and stumble across the criminals at the climax.

This film, for me, didn't need action and excitement. The saying that 'fact is stranger than fiction' held true in this instance. This was resounding evidence of the merit in telling a fascinating story exactly as it happened without the traditional Hollywood dramatisation.
Quietly satisfying.