FARGO (1996) *** One of the great things about Hollywood, as a melting pot, is that people arrive there from somewhere else. Of course everywhere in the world is exotic, if not necessarily beautiful, and so when Joel and Ethan Coen arrive from Minnesota...gee whiz, next thing the big screen is filled with Joel's spectacular polar snowscapes, well meaning yokels, imbecilic shadows of gangsters, evil car salesmen, Hardee's roast beef, and giddy accents saying "twin cities" as if they think that Rome and Paris exist side by side. Much of the action takes place in a town that bills itself as the home of Paul Bunyan and, of course, Paul Bunyan isn't real. What's real is the story, and what's at least as real is the human strangeness it represents. If you were a political zealot, how would you classify William H. Macy, the crooked car dealer who wants to kidnap his own wife so that he can extort his father in-law? As a raving capitalist you would no doubt declare him a "socialist" as he's trying to obtain money that he hasn't earned, and all capitalist zealots understand that's the main thing that socialists do. A long-eared socialist (with glasses) would surely pronounced him a "capitalist," as his only interest in life is cold cash, just like the rest of the mutated breed. It's not like there aren't any heroes, how else could you describe Frances McDormand the pregnant cop? It's the performance of a lifetime, utterly philosophical in its simplicity, beguiling in its subtle strategies (so subtle in fact that you might be inclined to say that there aren't any at all, but that would be wrong)...her credibility is such that towards the end, driving through five feet of snow with the sun glaring off it, when she says it's a great day the initial response is to believe her. Because she obviously means it, and she's good. The acting is all offbeat to the point of wondering if there's a beat at all. We've seen Steve Buscemi as the dweebie street sludge before, but what genius saw McDormand in her role? Or Peter Stormare as the devil's dumbest helper? Carter Burwell's stark musical snowscapes are piled in all the right corners, so much a part of the film that they're difficult to bring out with you. The Coen brothers say it's a true story so, you know, it must be true, unless that's just part of the movie.
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