Coen brothers at their best

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2004)

spoilers
The Coen brothers are con men of top pedigree. They tell you that Forgo is based on a true story but it isn't. They mix up all the producing, writing and directing so you don't know who's doing what. They even throw in a fictional film editor for good measure. But isn't that what film-making is all about  using the camera to trick you into believing what you've been show.
Fargo shows how magic can be created out of ordinary everyday things. A car salesman scraping snow from a windshield in a snow-covered parking lot is not exactly someone that you'll stop even for a second to look at. It just so happens in Fargo that at this point, we have identified so much with this particular car salesman (William H. Macy) that his every little frustration sends vibrations through us.
When I pressed the play button of the DVD for Fargo, I was thinking that I was in for a suspense ride like as Se7en. It didn't take me long to realize that this was a completely different kettle of fish, and I liked it. Telling the story exactly the way it is happening, without hidden twists, the Coen brothers show how they can still throw a surprise at you at every turn. When police woman Marge (Frances McDormand) suddenly bends down beside the overturn car with a shot victim inside, as if she suddenly sees a clue, it turns out that it's morning sickness. Towards the end of the movie, approaching the hideout of the two kidnappers (Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare) whom the audience just saw in an argument, what does Marge (and the audience) see  one of them just about finishing grinding something through a wood chipper, picking up one last foot (still in a neat white sock, with the sole facing upwards) working hard to push it down. You're at a lost whether to feel indignant or to burst out in a hilarious fit of laughs.
Another amazing thing is that while most good films got you empathising with the hero and/or heroin, the Coen brothers got you empathising with the whole lot of them in Fargo: the good (McDormand), the bad (Macy) and the uglies (Buscemi and Stormare), whenever its their turn on the screen. With the kidnappers, Buscemi and Stormare provide black comedy in the highest order. Macy is reminiscing of some of the clever criminals in Hitchcock's movie who has a sort of sardonic attraction that watching them scheming and plotting, you identify more and more with them. But it's McDormand who, appearing in less than half of the running time of the movie, convincingly won the Best Actress Oscar. (Macy was nominated for best supporting).
The few understated scenes between this earthly, pregnant policewoman and her artist husband carry more love and tenderness than all the stories in Lost Actually put together. But then, this ever smiling, ever courteous investigator can be awe-inspiring. Watch how one simple change of expression on her face sends the car salesman to flee.
Fargo is the sort of movie that keeps you thinking back. While the gory violence comes across as more comic than brutal, there are hidden chilly situations. The encounter with former school-day suitor Mike Yanagita starts out quite funny and ends a little soggy. But it's the subsequent phone call which reveals the truth that sends a shudder down your spine.
Fargo is full of wonderful surprises that delight those who can appreciate.