One of the top movies of the nineties

Rating: 9/10 (10 November 2002)

I revisited this recently and was again delighted with it on every level. Frances McDormand plays the police chief, Marge Gunderson, and plays her to perfection down to the flat Scandinavian accent sprinkled with "Ya's". William H. Macey plays the sleazeball car salesman who is in trouble with GMAC for getting loans on vehicles for which he has no serial numbers. He comes up with the ingenious scheme of having his wife kidnapped for a ransom from his fatherinlaw who is very wealthy and treats his son-in-law as an incompetent. the story takes off from there, twisting and turning in incredible but believable directions, victims dropping like flies. At the core of the movie is pregnant Marge and her painter husband Norm, secure in their domestic bliss. Marge goes out to solve this multiple homicide fiasco, Norm stays home and paints ducks for a postage stamp competition. Some of the scenes are to be seen to be believed and we are shocked out of complacency at times with some pretty graphic violence, and Marge gets her man in the end and does not hesitate to philosophize in the police car at him. A 9 out of 10. Do not miss this one. In my personal top 100 best of all time.