Suburban anxiety, Minnesota style

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2003)

Having grown up 80 miles north of Fargo, I can say that the film Fargo contains many inside jokes that quietly (or not so quietly) remind one that she is watching a movie about that part of the country. And whatever people think of the acting, story, etc., Fargo does capture much of the anxiety that the great plains quietly thrusts on those who live there (you can see this in the way Jean chops veggies), often hidden behind a smile or seemingly polite word.
One might note that this is a picture of mostly suburban Minnesota, around the twin cities, not rural. The film may have been better entitled "Edina" or "Maple Grove". Also, the accents, funny as they may be to most outside of the area, sound a little more like southwestern Wisconsin than North Dakota or Minnesota. Phrases such as "you're darn tootin" have never, to my knowledge, been knowingly been said by anyone in Minnesota. But aside from these minor quibbles, the Cohen bros do capture much of the darkness of a rather dark part of the world.