Outstanding black comedy

Rating: 9/10 (7 November 2019)

Desperate nebbish Jerry Lundegaard (an excellent William H. Macy) hires an erratic pair of criminals (played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife...and things go wrong, very wrong. 'Fargo' is one in a long list of superlative films produced and directed by the Coen brothers. The film is a dark, almost farcical, comedy with offbeat characters, an excellent sense of place (flat, wide, cold, and bleak), and the famous over-the-top Minnesota accents, especially from Academy Award winner Frances McDormand ("You betcha!"). The clever plot is a cautionary tale about just how hard pulling off a complex crime would be (unlike most 'caper films', few people in 'Fargo' respond as they were expected to) and the psychological strangulation as the noose tightens around Jerry is palpable. McDormand's 'Marge Gunderson', a heavily pregnant, always hungry, Minnesota cop investigating the increasingly bloody kidnapping is outstanding: perfectly blending the character's disarming 'Minnesota-nice' personality with her competence as an investigator. An entertaining and memorable film.