Irish Film Institute -FARGO

FARGO

Director: JOEL COEN

U.S.A. • 1996 • COLOUR • DOLBY STEREO SR • 98 MIN


PERHAPS THE COENS’ MOST CELEBRATED FILM, THIS IS A CONVOLUTED TALE OF CRIME AND PUNISHMENT SET IN A SNOWBOUND MINNESOTA.
Fargo is a hick town where desperate, cash-strapped car-dealer Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) hires a misbegotten duo (Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife. He can then cajole her loaded pop to stump up the ransom and make a killing. The problem is, a killing is exactly what is made. Mishap follows mess-up into a brilliantly plotted farce of lies, confusion and hilarity.
This is the Coens’ paean to the middle-America of their youth, and thanks to Frances McDormand’s heavily pregnant police chief Marge, it has the most heart of any of their films. With a sharp nose for wrongdoing, Marge traces the inept brigands and fraught Lundegaard to a bloody conclusion. The Coens’ understanding of the myriad quirks of human life ensures there is a constant sense of plausibility to it all, despite the high body count.

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