Fargo

1996 "A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere."
8.1| 1h38m| R| en| More Info
Released: 08 March 1996 Released
Producted By: PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Jerry, a small-town Minnesota car salesman is bursting at the seams with debt... but he's got a plan. He's going to hire two thugs to kidnap his wife in a scheme to collect a hefty ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It's going to be a snap and nobody's going to get hurt... until people start dying. Enter Police Chief Marge, a coffee-drinking, parka-wearing - and extremely pregnant - investigator who'll stop at nothing to get her man. And if you think her small-time investigative skills will give the crooks a run for their ransom... you betcha!

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thomasjay-52277 A fantastically layered production 'Fargo' is perhaps the finest film under the belts of the Coen brothers. Ahead of its time with its female protagonist and groundbreaking with its ambition this wintery tale is truly superb, such an interesting watch
Amy Adler 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.
chaswe-28402 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.
Blomkoli69 This slow-paced movie is really surprising in the way that it put an effort to show how things can go wrong when stupid, unexperienced people are tumbling in crime world. I loved how Cohen brothers unraveled a very well written plot that lead to an unsurprising end but close to how it ends in real life when these misdeeds are committed. One of the other feeling that transmit this movie is that everything that is happening looks so normal that it creates a strange atmosphere, burlesque, almost stupid, that makes the movie really funny to watch. So if you add all those things together plus a really good casting and filmmaking you've got a must see movie !!