One of the Coens' best

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2003)

My all-time favorite Coen Brothers movie remains Miller's Crossing, but this one is probably my second-favorite. It's a given that any film they make will have great photography, intelligent, snappy writing and at least a few laughs, but I'm not the first one to point out that sometimes they seem like a little too much style and a little too little substance. Such films can still be drop-down hilarious, as with The Big Lebowski or O Brother Where Art Thou, but Fargo is one that gives you a little bit more.
The heart of this movie is provided by Frances McDormand and William H. Macy. Their characters are very well fleshed-out and very human; to give just one example, the scene where Macy starts smashing his blotter down onto his desk in his office is almost painful to watch, because it captures so perfectly his feeling of utter frustration and helplessness. Part of the movie's genius is the seemingly effortless way that it captures the little details of its characters' lives and really makes them come alive.
When I just watched this movie again recently, I realized that the whole set-up -- plot, characters, setting -- is also a work of genius. It's no secret that the Coens are fans of the film noir genre and, especially, the novels that inspired it. Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn't There are both in the style of James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), Miller's Crossing is a clear homage to Dashiell Hammett's The Glass Key (especially the Alan Ladd film version) and The Big Lebowski is a parody of Raymond Chandler's writing style, with a burnt-out stoner sitting in for Philip Marlowe.
But what they've pulled off in Fargo is, conceptually, their most brilliant idea, perfectly executed. They've taken a storyline that could have come straight out of a classic thriller -- the husband who needs money, the betrayal, the murders, the plans gone awry -- and completely inverted almost every stereotypical element of such a novel.
Instead of being set in a big city like Los Angeles, this is set out in the boondocks in Minnesota; instead of snappy gangster patter, the characters speak in a broad midwestern accent peppered with "yah" and "oh, geez".
Instead of having an unmarried, cynical private eye as the hero detective, we have a pregnant police chief with a loving husband and a preternaturally cheerful disposition.
Instead of being shot at night with lots of shadows, much of the film takes place during the day and the dominant color in many scenes is white (snow).
The truly amazing achievement in this film is that the Coens could take something that's basically an elaborate stylistic joke -- a "reverse noir" ("film blanc"?) -- and turn it into such a funny, human and all-around great film. Don't miss this one.