Fargo

Released: March 8, 1996

Studio: Gramercy

Genre: crime/comedy

Box Office (numbers in millions):

Domestic: 24.61 Worldwide: ?

Adjusted for Inflation:

Domestic: ? Worldwide: 48.98

Directing: Joel Coen

Screenwriting: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Kristin Rudrid

Review:

This is “an offbeat, clever, kidnap whodunit-caper and black comedy” ^FS about “a series of gruesome murders intertwined with a botched kidnapping.” ^A07 “Midwestern car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (Macy)…ineptly schemes to kidnap his own wife Jean (Rudrid). When his hired henchmen Carl and Gaear (Buscemi and Stormare) botch the kidnapping, their murderous plan is persistently investigated by Marge Gunderson (McDormand),” ^FS “who reconstructs the crime with a style all her own.” ^A07

“McDormand is terrific as an efficient (and pregnant) police chief with multiple murders on her hands.” ^LM Her “brightness remains undimmed by the horrors she witnesses.” ^E18 “Macy is equally good as a two-bit schemer who tries to stay cool when he finds himself way over his head in a quicksand of crime” ^LM

The “Coen brothers, who wouldn’t know how to make a dull movie or an obvious movie,” ^RS “put a unique spin on a murder case, layering their story with droll observations about Minnesotans and winding up with a totally disarming comedy.” ^LM Their “snowy crime comedy is the best example of the ‘crap criminal’ subgenre, reminding us that wrongdoers are very rarely slick, professional types, and more usually people who are either inept or just winging it.” ^E18