Every now and then, one comes across a movie that has no other purpose than to tell a good story. These are movies that make no pretense of preaching any moral values nor do they take a stand on some hot social issue. All they want to do is entertain. And I am not talking about mindless slapstick comedy or dumb action movies here. I am talking Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects and the like. Fargo, I believe, is in the same class.
I don’t want to go into the plot details here. Indeed, the plot of this movie is nothing to speak about- just a rehashed version of the old crime gone wrong story. Probably, once the directors realized that they had a mediocre plot at hand they just added some memorable characters, an undertone of dark humour, intelligent dialogues, a haunting soundtrack and breathtaking cinematography and wrapped it up with strong performances from the cast!
Ok, lets take it one by one. All the major actors performed admirably in this movie. In particular Frances McDormand (as Sherrif Margie), William H Macey ( Jerry Undergaard) and Steve Buscemi (Carl Showalter) all have given outstanding performances. McDormand is perfect as the cheerful, optimistic and very pregnant detective (with a very keen eye). Each and every expression on Macey’s face is in coherence with his frustrated, loser character. And Buscemi, well, he is just the ’funny looking guy’! ’Can you be more specific?’ ’Oh, he is funny-looking in a general sort of way.’And that brings me to the dialogues and the humorous undertone in this movie. This movie could be viewed just as a black comedy, I suppose, and it would be a perfectly valid interpretation of the movie. I could give specific examples, but I don’t want to give away any of the plot.Also, a very refreshing change in the movie is the location- Fargo, Dakota, a place many non-americans wouldn’t have heard of. Included in the package is the accent- Minnesota, Dakota, I don’t know which, but I liked it!
I could go on and on about this movie and never stop. I could talk about the soundtrack- seven hours since I finished it, and I can’t get the theme music out of my head! I could also talk about the bleak winterscape and how it affects the tone of the movie while giving us some absolutely stunning shots with the camera. The bottom line is, this is one hell of a movie, and should be seen as soon as possible!
I guess I should mention the gore and violence level in the movie before signing off. This movie was rated R in the US because of excessive violence and lots of gore. Some of the scenes will leave all but the toughest squirming in their seats. I guess some people might not like the movie because of this. I have nothing to say to them except that all the director is doing is mirror real life.
Rated 8\10.