THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220068
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
THERE MUST BE a bit of the devil in both the Coen brothers.
``Fargo,'' the latest of their offbeat dramas of life on the excessive side, makes us roll with laughter in spite of ourselves. It's filled with gore (fired by a possible seven murders) but it has a hypnotic way of gripping us - and then playing with us.
Even the foreword, which crawls across the opening of the film, has a tongue-in-cheek quality. It informs us that the names have been changed ``out of respect for the dead.''
Just when we thought spring was here, the film transports us to a land of white and blank existence - a small town in Minnesota where things might have been painted by Norman Rockwell, if only they could be thawed out.
Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a desperate car salesman, seems to be living in the shadow of his rich and gruff father-in-law (played by Harve Presnell, in a return to movies after a 20-year absence). Jerry needs money, and respect.
He makes a deal with two low-life, small-time, sleazeballs to have his wife kidnapped, and then collect the ransom from her father. Almost immediately, the scheme goes wrong.
Steven Buscemi, complete with the evil eye and pallid complexion, adds another of his characterizations to the more talkative of the crooks. The hothead of the two is played by Peter Stormare, a veteran of the Ingmar Bergman film ``Fanny and Alexander.'' They mess everything up as we, and they, get deeper and deeper into the mishap.
The perky and ever-chipper female police chief has to investigate the murders, and takes on the task as if she were washing the evening dishes. She's one part Miss Marple from Agatha Christie and another part Columbo from TV - smarter than she acts. Frances McDormand (an Oscar nominee for ``Mississippi Burning'' who happens to be married to the director, Joel Coen) is a delight in the role. Speaking fluid Minnesotan, she goes about her job with relentless precision. The character happens to be seven months pregnant.
Macy is perfect as the hapless car salesman, a poor sap who didn't mean any harm but just wanted to get enough money to get respect from his father-in-law.
Minor characters take on special color - such as McDormand's meek husband, a man who paints pictures of waterfowl he hopes will be used on stamps.
Joel Coen directed and Ethan Coen produced. They co-wrote. Some of the wild humor of their ``Raising Arizona'' is here as well as some of the macabre satire of ``Blood Simple.'' They demand that we play by their rules. Even as we know we are being manipulated, we are quite willing to go along - mainly because these filmmakers are so unpredictable. Here, they avoid the broadness of ``The Hudsucker Proxy'' and sink back into their own closed little world.
This is the best of the Coen brothers' six films and, easily, one of the best films of this year. McDormand should be in the competition for the new Oscar race which is beginning - although it would be difficult to decide if she should be in the best actress or best supporting actress category. This is an ensemble piece in which everyone works to paint the bizarre picture.
There are scenes that are uncomfortably gory. There are frequent moments when you think they're going too far. Excess, though, is the stuff of which humor is made.
``Fargo'' is a film original. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Fargo''
Cast: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve
Presnell, Peter Stormare, John Carroll Lynch, Jose Feliciano
Director: Joel Coen
Screenplay: Ethan and Joel Coen
Music: Carter Burwell
MPAA rating: R (gory violence)
Mal's rating: 4 stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk
by CNB