At times sweet, but mostly sour

Rating: 1/10 (27 August 2008)

Fargo Directed by Joel Coen
"The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun."George Orwell
According to the opening title of Fargo, the events that follow are all true, but out of respect for the dead, the names have been changed. However, according to the last title, none of this should be perceived as true. Is this a Coen brother's commentary on what has the final say, if there is one? No, it's more of a cynical mocking of crime capers who make the initial claim based on a loophole like the last. Much of Fargo goes similarly. It executes hideous acts of violence and crime and then tries to distance itself from them by using a heavy handed police detective Marge (Frances McDormand).
It's also a comment on crime genre clichés. It picks apart the idea of how in novels, crimes go perfectly. The crime here is a kidnapping of Jerry's wife which is delegated by Jerry (William H. Macy) so he can collect the ransom from his wealthy father in law. The crime is executed by Gaear (Peter Stormare) and Carl (Steve Buscemi) who will receive half the ransom and are merely looking for "some money."
Part of the problem with Marge and the three other lead characters is their simplicity. Jerry is an upper class evil while Gaear and Carl are a lower class evil, while Marge is pure good. The characters in Blood Simple and Miller's Crossing on the other hand were all various forms of each, and one can sympathize with most if not all of the major characters. This film also exhibits none of the excellent precision of Blood Simple, a film some view as a prequel to this one. But Blood Simple's violence was used as a means for a point and not an end.
One of the other major functions of FargoLike Alexander Payne's Nebraska trilogyis to get back at the land from where the Coen's hail from, Minnesota. They make fun of the accents and rural attitudes through thinly veiled contempt. It generalizes about Minnesotans weaknesses for prostitutes and fast food, while essentially putting the joke on us for watching this violence unfold.
The chaos that ensues after the kidnapping has no control system set up by the filmmakers, but is messy and ugly and only gets messier and uglier as the film goes on. But even with all this going on, the film never surprises. Its style is the only thing that keeps us interested, but the style fades in time and all we are left with is one very cynical and simplistic world view.
Actually more like a 4/10, but wanted to get the comment noticed.