It's Never Too Cold for Murder

Rating: 9/10 (1 December 2019)

Fargo contrasts the snowy quiet that accompanies Minneapolis simple living with scenes of excessive violence and depravity to create an unsettling yet captivating experience for the viewer.
On one hand, you have one of my favorite female characters of all time Marge Gunderson, played expertly by Frances McDormand, who is a talented and good natured police officer who just so happens to be pregnant and engaged in one of the most wholesome relationships ever put to screen with her husband Norm. And then, on the other hand, you have two psychopathic kidnappers and a mild-mannered family man who engineers some base plans.
I love Marges character because it contrasts heavily with the standard grizzled veteran cop with a dark past but is good at his job stereotype subverting a well established movie trope, and I love the kidnappers because they are just so different from literally every other character in the movie. I hate Jerry because his kind Minnesotan demeanor belies his scheming corrupt nature.
The Coen brothers are undisputed masters and the cinematography here is breathtaking. There are so many beautiful shots of the snowy and sparsely populated landscape of Fargo. The snow acts as a kind of obscuring and calming presence on screen, almost turning it into a horror movie-esq fog that is meant to cultivate uncertainty. It seems so cold there you cannot really imagine someone mustering up the energy to commit violence out there.
All the violent scenes are expertly done and expertly contrasted illuminating a terror lurking in the quiet simple American life, greed. And the setting is just so... inoccient and quiet. I love how ever character from Minnesota, especially Jerry, excessively uses the words "Oh yeah" and "Oh geeze" when communicating, they are not the kind you anticipate to deal with grizzly murders.
There are also a lot more subtle little things the Coen brothers show the viewer that helps emphasize just how wholesome and quiet this place is, one of my favorites being that Jerry's kid, rather than having the traditional bikini pictures on his wall as you might expect from a near puberty adolescent, has a picture of an accordion player on his door. There is also a scene where two ladies of the night are interviewed, and rather than appearing hardened or overly sexual as they normally would in the movies, the Coen brothers have them act like simple young adults who are extremely innocent and unfortunately more than a little slow.
I could go on and on talking about little things in the interactions between characters, the plain setting of nearly every location in the film, or the creeping yet strangely hollow score but that may take up a lot more space than I intend to. Suffice it to say that this is a simple tale of the tribulation of a good mother, the sin of a deadbeat father, and the death of not only people, but the myth of the peaceful quiet life.
We may not understand why some people end up so rotten, but we can love each other as best we can and try our best to do good, and honestly, isn't that enough?