Tragic and funny

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2002)

"Fargo" is one of the best movies I've ever seen because it takes tragic subject matter and gives it a sometimes light, sometimes dark, and always subtle treatment that somehow leaves you a little unsettled at the end. You watch the story of this bungling car salesman unfold, watch as we are taken deeper into his sad, shallow and cowardly mind, and see how his "simple plan" slowly strangles him as the circumstances spin out of his control. The body count grows and we get more and more a feeling of senselessness to it all, which the hero sums up so well with her lecture to the criminal at the end. The barren and unforgiving wasteland in which the movie is set is a perfect backdrop to this story of isolation, but the hero's constantly perky disposition is the perfect antidote, a reminder that human nature can be as good as it wants to be.
Meanwhile, the movie manages to be funny, with most of the laughs coming at the expense of the goofy lingo of the Minnesota locals and the dorkiness of Steve Buscemi's character.
This is a movie that makes a real statement, and keeps you entertained in the process. William H. Macy, Frances McDormand and Buscemi are all brilliant in this movie.