437. Fargo (1996)

Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Running Time: 98 mins

Fargo is an American film about a man’s crime, intended for his own financial gain, which goes badly wrong, and the perpetrators fall into danger with the crack police detective Marge Gunderson on the scene.

Well, this film had absolutely everything in it. A brilliantly fascinating and thrilling plot line, amazing performances and characters all around, a fantastically written screenplay, and some dark comedy to go along with all of that too.

I don’t really know where to start with this, because there were so many individual elements that were excellent, and made this film so enjoyable and exciting to watch. However, I’ll try and start with the fantastic story. This story is unusually slow-paced for this type of crime story, with many conflicts, deals or other being drawn out for a long time, but that just increased the tension so much.

What also makes this film so immensely unique is the way that it uses its characters to make it so contrasting and strange. Every single thing about every character is usually a stark difference, such as the two criminals, one funny and clumsy, and the other silent but deadly (and extremely scary to watch on screen), which makes for a fantastic conflict and a grizzly end.

Also, the fact that this pretty horrific story is set in a sleepy area of North Dakota makes all the more odd. But what makes it really strange is the accent and personality of the locals. It seems as if they’re so nice and innocent, just by the playfulness of their accent and demeanour, however the fact that you see very unexpected qualities, such as desperation in Lundegaard, and genius detective skills in Marge Gunderson, who is played excellently by Frances McDormand.

Overall, I’ll give this an 8.8, because it has a perfect blend of comedy, conflict, horror, crime, thrills and everything in between, and it’s so well written that it grabs you from start to finish.