Fargo

"So, uh, you married old Norm son-of-a-Gunderson?" (huge laughs all around when he said that... No joke)

1996

Directed by Joel Coen

Date Viewed: Tuesday July 27, 2010 (second viewing)

It's been so long since the last time I saw this movie, so it was basically new to me. Here's a basic plot in case you don't remember, or if you're my mom and hasn't seen it... :) Jerry Lundegaard needs money. He hires a couple of guys to kidnap his wife so that his rich father in law will cough up the cash to get her back. He tells the henchmen that he'll ask for $80,000 and they'll split it 50/25/25. Well really he tells his father in law the ransom is $1 mil. Anyways, the henchmen screw up, end up killing 3 people in Brainerd so police get involved and we follow Marge Gunderson around doing some investigating.

This is definitely a dark comedy. I love the Minnesota accents. They're hilarious, especially since I know people who actually talk like that... I also love that my brothers noticed that some characters were walking out of Embers without there being any mention of the restaurant name or a sign... True Trygg fashion (Btw, it was the Embers off of 494 and something else... my dad is obsessed with Embers). But I like darkly funny things... I think this is my favorite Coen Bros. movie too. The cast is perfect. William H. Macy and Frances McDormand are very underrated actors. I love both of them in pretty much every movie I've seen them in. I did feel bad for Jerry when things started falling apart which was kind of weird since he did want his wife kidnapped which wasn't very nice of him... But William H. Macy made him so likable and Minnesotan with his little accent and his MN niceness. So anyways, great movie. A