Fargo

FARGO (18)

D: Joel Coen

Working Title/Polygram (Ethan Coen)

USA/UK 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 1996

98 mins

Crime/Thriller

W: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

DP: Roger Deakins

Ed: Roderick Jaynes (Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)

Mus: Carter Burwell

PD: Rick Heinrichs

Frances McDormand (Marge Gunderson), William H. Macy (Jerry Lundegaard), Steve Buscemi (Carl Showalter), Peter Stormare (Gaear Grimsrud), Harve Presnell (Wade Gustafson), John Carroll Lynch (Norm Gunderson)

The Coen Brothers' finest hour: an "untrue true story" which works both as a crime thriller as well as a black comedy.

The movie claims to be based on a true story (which it isn't, the filmmakers just decided to claim it as such) of a crime gone wrong in snow-covered Minnesota.

Used car salesman Jerry Lundegaard hires two irascible kidnappers to abduct his wife so he can take a slice of the ransom that his father-in-law will pay. It all goes wrong however, and a trail of murders are left for pregnant police officer Marge Gunderson to investigate.

The Coen's deliver a genuine work of art here, filled with great characters, memorable dialogue and a story so surreal yet believable, it's forgiving that many audience members believed it's claims to be based on fact. One of the best films of the 1990's and inspiration for a TV show which hit the smaller screen two decades later.

10/10