FILM CHALLENGE: 145) Fargo

145) Fargo

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Year: 1996

Plot Summary: Jerry works in his father-in-law's car dealership and has gotten himself in financial problems. He tries various schemes to come up with money, but is unsuccessful in his attempts. Therefore, he hires two men to kidnap his wife, making her ransom be paid by her father. From the moment of the kidnapping though things go wrong and what was supposed to be a non-violent affair turns more bloody with every minute, sparking a tenacious, sheriff to investigate the three murders in her jurisdiction.

The film could very easily be dismissed by Coen brothers fans who have come to expect heavy symbolism, hidden meanings and almost completely undecipherable metaphors from their work as an everyday morality tale. However, while it does explore the nature of good, evil and all the shades of grey in between, it's certainly not something ordinary.

Typical to their filmmaking, Joel and Ethan Coen do a masterful and artistic job of bringing this theme into their work by, first of all, making the two criminals, Carl and Grimsrud, embody all of the seven deadly sins. Lust when they sleep with the prostitutes, gluttony in Grimsrud's violent insistence to stop at 'Pancakes House', wrath when Carl attacks the ticket officer, greed when Carl lies about the amount of money, and so on. Moreover, to contrast the idea of evil, we have the Marge Gunderson who embodies the seven holy virtues. Temperance during her interview with Jerry, fortitude when she faces the criminals, charity when she puts her police work on hold to buy night crawlers for her husband, etc.

The most fascinating subject in Fargo, however, is the one that stands between the two polar opposites of good and evil: Jerry Lundergard. Jerry is an everyday businessman who wants to be a good husband and a good father to his son. However, he's soon corrupted by greed and in order to finalise the deal on his parking lot, which he needs a large sum of money for, he decides to hire the aforementioned criminals to kidnap his wife. They'd have his rich stepfather pay the ransom and split the money when it's over. Watching him cross the line from moral to immoral is fantastic thanks to an incredible performance by William H. Macy. As the police begin to discover what has truly gone on, Macy subtle gestures and line delivery brilliantly reflect just how cornered Jerry is like a man stuck in a burning building awaiting the inevitable.

Even if you couldn't care less about the complex moral metaphors and symbolism, however, Fargo is still a great piece of entertainment. As it constantly twists and turns and the three narratives of the criminals, the employer and the detective slowly merge into one, the Coen brothers' Best Picture nominee will have you glued to the screen. Moreover, hidden behind the tension and the tragedy, it's a film packed full of black comedy that will make you laugh time and time again. The exchanges between the dominant stepfather Wade and the pathetic, weak Jerry are among the best dialogue they've ever wrote. Especially when the latter phones Wade with faux panic to inform him of his wife's disappearance.

Right up there with Pulp Fiction and even better than Reservoir Dogs, Fargo is one of the seminal crime dramas of the 1990s and remains among the best that the Coen brothers have ever made.

5/5

By Daniel Sarath with 2 comments