Wonderful

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2000)

I love this movie; I love to watch it and revel in the details of a conspiracy plot gone wrong. The pacing of the film is absolutely perfect - it never lags, yet every scene present is significant in some way. While I hate to use a cliche, the movie puts you through quite a ride - one minute you are flinching at a particularly violent scene, the next minute you are chuckling at some banter between two characters.
The acting itself is superb; all of the actors who have major parts in the film (Macy, McDormand, Buscemi, Presnell, Stormare) manage to portray their characters in such a way to complement the storyline as it moves forward. None of them "steal the show", so to speak - every actor in the movie put forth a good effort and they all manage to work well within the context of the story. On top of all that, the fact that the film looks beautiful is a testament to the camerawork; it's hard to make endless amounts of white snow look good, yet Fargo does it, time and time again.
Everytime I watch Fargo, I am consistently amazed at how well done the film is. The entire movie is perfect entertainment, and the ending, while incredibly violent and dark, is superb; it's a great payoff as well as providing closure to the story.
It's almost impossible to believe that this movie did not win the 1996 Academy Award for Best Picture. It was robbed, plain and simple. Fargo is as flawless as movies come, and arguably the best movie released in the 1990s.