COLE HOGAN
Arts Writer

Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, Fargo is a suspenseful dark comedy set against a familiar backdrop. Fargo is a classic film about people in unprecedented situations.

Living in Saskatchewan as we do, many scenes throughout Fargo are perhaps a little more familiar than we care to admit. The freezing, close-to-nuclear winter backgrounds are commonplace and are easily recognizable to us.

Fargo, while taking place in Minnesota and North Dakota, is regionally appealing to any of us who deal with this weather for a majority of the year. The suspense felt during the film and the murderous violence contained in it is, thankfully, not as familiar.

Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) has a lot invested in the decisions of his unknowing father-in-law (Harve Prisnell) when it comes to his wealth and business. Jerry sells cars for a living and would like his father-in-law to fund a business deal that could potentially save him from bankruptcy. After discovering the money is not about to come his way, he devises a plot beyond his supposed business plan to get the money he requires.

The increasingly pathetic and defeated Mr. Lundegaard is extremely apologetic even when overly frustrated. He cannot help but be courteous and conscientious to everyone he is dealing with, even Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) the criminals he hires to kidnap his wife (Kristin Rudrud).

Watching Jerry Lundegaard squirm in Fargo is very uncomfortable. The viewer feels a second-hand embarrassment for Jerry, who is unpleasantly losing at life.

The planned kidnapping to be executed will result in Jerry’s father-in-law paying an $80,000 ransom which will be divided between Showalter, Grimsrud and himself and be used to pick himself up out of his financial woes. Jerry’s overall incompetence and unfamiliarity with the world of crime leads to Murphy’s law all over the place.

With the exception of the criminals, all of the characters have the very prairie way of speaking. The small-town characters all speak in the colloquial, friendly but matter-of-fact manner that, again, some of us in this province know all too well.

The Coen brothers, originally from in Minnesota, exaggerate the portrayal of the mid-west accent for humour’s sake, which you cannot help but imitate. All of the characters in Fargo, regardless of the size of their role, are quite memorable. The reason being they are all superbly well written and performed. There is not a single forgettable character in Fargo.

Steve Buscemi is a very accomplished actor and plays a criminal with characteristics common to his previous roles. Neurotic, teeming with paranoia, Showalter is always on edge, concerned with the execution and follow through of the aforementioned kidnapping.

Showalter rarely stops talking in the scenes that he is in and his nerves often get the best of him. Showalter is a rabid nervous fit of sweat, in cold comparison to the morose silence of his partner Grimsrud, who kills almost as much as Showalter talks. Grimsrud’s actions catch the attention of a pregnant policewoman in Brainerd, Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand).

Frances McDormand’s range as an actress is demonstrated in her portrayal of Mrs. Gunderson.

A simple Minnesotan, Marge Gunderson is a methodically natural police officer and the impetus of the film. With corpses sprawled amongst the high way, Marge’s small-town disposition leads her to doubt that these occurrences are possible, whilst reconstructing the events of the night prior. A combination of visiting the crime scene and eyewitness reports result in Marge Gunderson setting a series of unexpected events in motion.

Fargo has many moments of comedic relief, which are called for in contrast with the grizzly deaths. The way the Coens mix the two together is eerie, the killings and comedy interconnecting closely across the cold. If Fargo is on, I’m watching it. It’s one of those, yeah.