In wintery Minnesota, Jerry (William H. Macy) has big problems of his own making. Secretly deep in debt, he has few options, although he is married to the daughter of a very rich man, Wade (Harve Pressnell) and works as the manager of his father in law's car dealership. Wade dislikes Jerry, you see. Desperate, he turns to two seedy characters in Fargo, recommended by an auto mechanic, to kidnap his wife, forcing Wade to pay up. The trio will split the proceeds. One of the would-be nappers, Carl (Steve Buscemi) is a non-stop talker with a loose cannon. The other (Peter Stormare) is a blonde menacing giant who says hardly anything. A car from Wade's lot will be the operation vehicle. Almost immediately, there are problems. Huge ones. A highway patrolman pulls the vehicle over, as it still have dealership plates. As Carl starts to reason with the officer, the giant shoots the cop. They drag his body to a ditch. Not only this, a young couple sees the crime from their car and a high speed pursuit ends in their deaths, also. Now, a small city police officer, Marge (Frances McDormand), six months pregnant, must find the perps for these deaths while Wade, frantic, tries to negotiate for the life of his beloved daughter. Meanwhile, Jerry sinks deeper and deeper into lies and deceit. Despite Marge's pregnancy and small town roots, can she solve these crimes? This tantalizing film has a superb plot, careful direction, and an eye and ear for snowy venues and upper Midwest conversation. In addition, the cast is fabulous, with Macy, Mcdormand, Buscemi, Stormare, and all others pulling off performances of great power. Don't forgo Fargo, even though it has some rough violence. The film's magnitude is richly deserved.

Having seen this film some years ago I used to think it was really good. I watched it again last night, and decided it was actually pretty messy and nasty. Nearly all the characters, with Marge and the bit parts excepted, are unusually unpleasant. The Coens seem not to have enjoyed growing up in Scandinavian America, and have taken revenge on the place. Is it populated almost entirely by dolts, scammers, thugs, bullies, hookers, wimps and so on ? According to the extra feature "Minnesota Nice" there is an underlying feeling that "polite cultures are the most repressed and therefore the most violent". The Coens put it that way, in any case. In other respects the whole set-up reminded me a little of Blue Velvet country, ten years earlier.The film kicks off with three unplanned killings of innocent people, and then adds to these with three or four more. It would spoil things were I to list them. Marge, who is a pregnant policewoman, then forces a solution to what is going on and arrests the surviving guilty party. She tells him it's a beautiful day. It isn't in fact, since it's foggy and snowy. She ends up in bed with her signally lumpy husband, and tells him he's wonderful. The two of them spend a lot of time stuffing their mouths. There is a curious incident with a mentally disturbed Japanese man. I don't quite know what that's about. The net result is faintly comic, in an ugly sort of way, if you think all the deaths are funny. $1 million, less $80,000, is buried and lost in the snow.

One of my all time favourites and one of the Coen brothers masterpieces. So good that it led to two subsequent tv series which are both outstanding. Funny, intricate and with wonderful acting by Frances McDormand, Bill Macy and Steve Buscemi in particular. The more times you watch it the more you'll see how good it is. And who'd be without a wood chipper after seeing that scene ?!

Fargo is agreat movie on so many levels. First of all: The story is awesome. Not the type of crime story you find often, really original and especially well-written. I love how in the beginning you feel sorry for Mr. Lundegaard and you want to keep that feeling so bad, but by the end it becomes so clear that there's really no reason for feeling sorry. All the characters are protrayed spot-on, I enjoyed Frances McDormand's performance in particular (like everybody probably). Also, the dialogues and humor are just classic by now. Another very nice thing is the very original cinematography, often not using typical thriller elements and adding a taste of drama to the flick. Visuals and sound are executed meticulously, you see and hear so many little details that not everybody would have thought of. The last thing I want to add that I liked was the runtime. At 98 minutes, it's anything but a long movie and squeezing a complex, yet understandable and entertaining plot in there is quite achievement.I loved Fargo, there's really nothing bad that comes to mind.