But the plan goes awry, right from the beginning when Jerry arrives an hour later for their meeting. The criminals are stoic Gaear (Peter Stormare) and talkative Carl (Steve Buscemi). Their personalities are mismatched, and they make several mistakes, further compounded by their willingness to kill witnesses.
On the trail is police chief Marge (Frances McDormand), a perceptive woman who never misses a lead. The film proves the old maxim that crime doesn't pay, as Marge's detective work steadily links together the two killers with Jerry, the man who hired them.
How others will see it. The relatively low budget Fargo did well at the box office, and received seven Oscar nominations, winning Best Actress (McDormand) and best screenplay. It remains a critical favorite, currently ranked in the imdb Top 250. The continued career success of the Coens has only helped the film further. The imdb.com user ratings show a slight decline in appreciation corresponding to increasing age, and there is a modest gender gap as well. This implies that some may be turned off by the film's graphic violence. Was it necessary to show a foot shoved into a meat grinder? Perhaps not, but it is an effective image. Murder is ugly.
How I felt about it. Quirky as the body of work of the Coen brothers may be, they have also made a number of crime dramas, such as No Country for Old Men, Miller's Crossing, and Fargo. The crime dramas are more accessible, even to critics, than the eccentric comedies, such as The Big Lebowski and Barton Fink. This may explain why the big Oscars have gone to Fargo and No Country for Old Men instead of Raising Arizona, which I also admired.
Eccentric touches are the Coen brothers trademark, and they are present on Fargo. Swedish accents and expressions provide a running gag, as does local lumberjack mythology. McDormand gets a Asian-American stalker, something completely unrelated to the rest of the plot. Gaear is a fanatic for pancake houses. Frances is seven months pregnant.
But the effect of the quirkiness is different with Fargo. It's more unsettling than funny. The body count rises steadily, as does the contempt we feel for the criminal leads.
The Coen brothers understand the mentality of the criminal. It is completely selfish and short-sighted. What should I do to get money yet keep my freedom? Ultimately, these actions lead to remorseless mass murder. That was more than what Jerry instigated, but one violent crime (kidnapping) combined with general incompetence leads to a chain of murders. These shock Jerry, but his reaction is to panic and ultimately flee. He may be more pathetic than violent, but he is almost as much to blame for the murder spree than those he hired.
Perhaps the most appealing aspect about Fargo is its casting. Nobody looks like a model, not even the three prostitute characters. Wouldn't it be nice if Hollywood always casted the character, and not the hot young actor/actress?