Shiny Happy Tedium

Rating: 1/10 (22 October 2006)

What is it about these movies from the Coen brothers which appeals to so many people? How can anyone enjoy a slow paced, over-the-top acted borefest with an impressive collection of the most annoying personalities available. Movies which don't seem to go anywhere despite the fact that there is plenty of story to go about. It must be something masochistic which I don't get.
Fargo.
Surely none of the characters are real life persons but yet I'm not watching a cartoon. None of the dialog seems to be of this Earth, yet I'm not watching a re-enactment of our planet by the inhabitants of Planet KzOrp. So I can only imagine that I'm watching a comedy or at least a movie with an attempt at humor. I mean, what else could it be? It's too preposterous to be a thriller and the characters and the screenplay are too bizarre to make it a drama.
I must have been misinformed about this genre of film. Because it has always been my understanding that a comedy had something to do with laughter and amusement. A ridiculous situation could become quite funny, but truly not when the whole movie is ridiculous as well. Same goes for the abominable, hateful characters.
If the movie Groundhog Day, arguably amongst the best comedies ever made, was made by the Coen brothers, they would have had the entire village reliving the same day over and over again. And not only that, they would have made every character in that movie be twice as arrogant (Murray), dorky (Larry) and desirable (MacDowell) etc. Its result would be the a monstrosity of a caricature .
This movie lacks everything what Groundhog Day makes a good comedy; namely finesse, subtlety and something which makes the viewer not being alienated from the characters and above all, something actually funny going on. (Since when is a kidnapping and a lot of deaths a funny setting? Because Buscemi and Macy are in it?..give me a break, this is hardly Pulp Fiction)
For a crime/thriller based on actual fact, it lacks a seriousness and perhaps even respect to the events that have taken place. And the lack of means of time-travel aside, watching Fargo, I was expecting Jeff Bridges to walk onto the set looking for his stupid rug which would have been my longed for queue to press the eject button.
So all in all it is not a comedy, it is not a crime/drama/thriller but simply a Coen production. To me it's just an incredibly annoying in-between-genre film which cannot decide what it's supposed to be. Therefore it misses the mark on all counts which make the redeeming qualities of the production (and there are a lot) seem sadly wasted.
But it seems to be the minority opinionthe bandwagon ride is so comfy..