Fargo (SE)

Comedy, Crime, Thriller

Frances McDormand	Marge Gunderson
William H. Macy	Jerry Lundegaard
Steve Buscemi	Carl Showalter
Harve Presnell	Wade Gustafson
Kristin Rudrud	Jean Lundegaard
Peter Stormare	Gaear Grimsrud
Kristin Rudrüd	Jean Lundegaard
Tony Denman	Scotty Lundegaard
Kurt Schweickhardt	Car Salesman
John Carroll Lynch	Norm Gunderson
Larry Brandenburg	Stan Grossman
Stephen Park	Mike Yanagita
Steve Reevis	Shep Proudfoot
Warren Keith	Reilly Diefenbach

Director	Ethan Coen; Joel Coen
Producer	Tim Bevan; Eric Fellner
Writer	Joel Coen; Ethan Coen
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Musician	Carter Burwell

Leave it to the wildly inventive Coen brothers (Joel directs, Ethan produces, they both write) to concoct a fiendishly clever kidnap caper that's simultaneously a comedy of errors, a Midwestern satire, a taut suspense thriller, and a violent tale of criminal misfortune. It all begins when a hapless car salesman (played to perfection by William H. Macy) ineptly orchestrates the kidnapping of his own wife. The plan goes horribly awry in the hands of bumbling bad guys Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare (one of them being described by a local girl as "kinda funny lookin'" and "not circumcised"), and the pregnant sheriff of Brainerd, Minnesota (played exquisitely by Frances McDormand in an Oscar-winning role) is suddenly faced with a case of multiple murders. Her investigation is laced with offbeat observations about life in the rural hinterland of Minnesota and North Dakota, and Fargo embraces its local yokels with affectionate humor. At times shocking and hilarious, Fargo is utterly unique and distinctly American, bearing the unmistakable stamp of its inspired creators. --Jeff Shannon