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The Sheer, Unassuming Excellence of Fargo
Fargo sets itself up as a trivial but entertaining crime-drama. The characters are small-minded and unlikable; the stakes are not particularly high; the dialogue is comical. The Coen brothers proceed to deliver an expansive, sympathetic and wickedly funny masterpiece. They lull you with funny accents and sucker punch you with the human condition. It is for good reason that Roger Ebert said, “Films like Fargo are why I love the movies.”
Most of the characters of Fargo are bland and comic in equal measure. From the odious and pathetic Jerry Lundergarden (William H. Macy) to the almost dumb Gaear (Peter Stormare) and “funny looking, in a general sort of way” Carl (Steve Buscemi), these characters are vicious, cruel, backward, immoral, deplorable, and boring, not to any extravagant extent, but each in their own small and narrow way. It is this lack of imagination, this teetering insignificance of the criminal, that the Coen brothers are poking fun at.
In fact, the whole plot is stupid. It resembles a cotton spool unspilling, enmeshing each character in a muddle of incompetence. Jerry’s efforts to pay off his debts by kidnapping his wife and forcing his rich, brusque father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell), to pay the ransom, end in disaster when the his thugs-for-hire kill a state trooper. Their efforts to untangle themselves only get them…
