Fargo, 1996

 

I am going to assume if you are reading past the first sentence here, that you have seen Fargo and are purely curious what I am going to write about it, or you have lived under a rock for the past 30 years and have never gotten around to see this beautiful movie. 

That's not to say living under a rock has certain advantages. For instance, there are a lot of movies that you should be happy you have missed. This is certainly not one of them. This is one of those must-see movies for anyone who considers themselves a movie buff. 

This movie was released in 1996, during the last few years where renting movies at Blockbuster was still a thing. And unlike a lot of movies you would rather wait for to rent, Fargo actually did pretty well in theaters and garnered a lot of positive accolades as well as awards. 

It was written and directed by the Coen brothers, which, if you don't know, created some of the most masterful movies of their generation. Fargo takes place in Minnesota, which is odd, because the actual city of Fargo is in North Dakota. That tidbit of trivia is completely meaningless to the story, but I thought I'd mention it. Not only that, but they filmed a lot of this movie in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, nowhere near Fargo, ND. But that's neither her nor there, just some random trivia I thought I'd share.

William H. Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard, a car salesman that has made some rather shitty and dubious financial decisions with regard to the dealership owned by his father in law. When I say "decisions", I am really saying "he embezzled money" and cheated a lot of customers out of money. In addition to that, he's been using the lot to embezzle money by using invalid VIN numbers with the IRS to evade taxes. Apparently quite a lot of taxes.

When he realizes that everything is going to go to shit due to a government audit (which will completely out his shady tax scheme, and possibly uncover all the other schemes he is involved with), he asks his father in law Wade (played by Harvey Presnell) for a loan. Although the specific reason for the loan is somewhat unclear, it seems that he wants to invest in a parking lot business. 

The scheme is so believable that the father in law invites an investor to join them in a meeting and they decide to just outright buy the business Jerry wanted in on and leave Jerry with nothing more than a finder's fee, if that. This is Wade's way of not only letting Jerry know how little he respects him, but outright insulting him. Now Jerry realizes he's completely screwed. 

With me so far?

So now that he basically has been fucked over by his father in law, he devises a plan to have his wife Jean (played by Kristin Rudrud) kidnapped so he could collect a ransom from Wade, his father in law. Did I mention Wade is pretty wealthy? Even though he is, he has made it very clear to Jerry that any inheritances or money that might be distributed would only be done to his wife and son, but not him directly. Another slight that Jerry is upset about. 

For the rest of the movie, we just watch helplessly as Jerry makes mistake after mistake, trying to get this ransom from Wade. This includes hiring two thugs Carl Showalter, played by Steve Buscemi, and Gaear Grimsrud, played by Peter Stormare, who are at complete odds with each other the entire movie.

Jerry tries to make this entire ransom scheme as simple as possible, but Wade steps in and completely fucks up his plans. Now his father in law is dead, his wife is in danger because Gaear is a complete nutjob, and he still doesn't have the money he needs for his schemes. 

Marge Gunderson, the pregnant Minnesota state trooper who is rather unfazed as only a true mid-westerner could be by this entire investigation, is the calm against Jerry's storm. She is investigating the murder of a state trooper and two other victims who happen to have been driving a vehicle from Jerry's dealership, that, unbeknownst to her, was perpetrated by the very same thugs that Jerry hired in the first place. Now Jerry is completely spooked, the two thugs are spooked, and the movie goes to hell. Oh, and a wood chipper comes into play, which is always nice. And that is about it as far as the plot of the movie. 

The thing about Coen brother movies that I love so much, and find to be so remarkable, is that what you see from beginning to end is merely a snapshot of a situation in one or more character's lives. You aren't arriving in the beginning, nor is the end all perfectly wrapped in a nice little bow tie like most other films. You are simply an observer in a very small yet important window of a situation. You know that there was more to the store beforehand, and you know the story continues on after the movie is over, but it has no bearing on the movie itself. And this goes for nearly every Coen Brother film out there. 

However, this particular movie is one of the exceptions that actually does tie things up rather well. The viewer is left with some questions, there are still some mysteries to be solved, but there is some sense of certainty that the movie is over as far as Jerry's story. 

Fargo is not a fast-paced thriller or action flick, it's not an overly done drama or crime film. It's simply a movie about a guy who has no idea what he's doing, who makes some pretty fucked up decisions, and loses everything in the end. 

Unlike most of my previous reviews, I'm going to simply rate this a 9 out of 10. And this is because I firmly believe everyone should see this movie at least once; twice because you probably missed something the first time. If your repertoire of films does not include Fargo, it is immeasurably incomplete.