Perfect example of the "dark comedy" genre

Rating: Null/10 (3 September 2000)

The first half of this film plays like a comedy. It's very funny in a dark kind of way, especially the deadpan comments of the two crooks and the perfect timing of the direction. Then, all of sudden...BAM...the smalltwon sheriff is graphically shot in the head. You then find yourself saying, "Wait a minute...that wasn't very funny." The movie just gets more interesting at that point, especially when we are introduced to our hero...a pregnant police chief named Marge. Huh? It's neat how this film shows us a thriller played out by simple smalltown folk. William H. Macy does an excellent job portraying a man who is frustrated and can't seem to get a break. And even though he's about to have his own wife kidnapped and scam the hired thugs out of millions of dollars in ransom money, his humbleness and frustration causes us to relate with him, and we feel sorry for him (until the end, at least). The film reminds us all of a time in which we had a good thing planned out and going good for ourselves, only to watch someone else ruin it for us. And on a final note: The accents in the film, although funny, are greatly exaggerated. Many people who live in the region are embarrassed and offended by it. But guess what? Movies have been doing the same thing to people from the South for a long, long time (Watch any movie that has a Yankee actor using a ridiculous "southern accent"). I think it's time for the Midwest to stop complaining, Fargo is one of the best films of the nineties.