Fargo
Joel Coen, 1996, 98 mins.
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In Fargo, the snow falls and covers the ground in beige banality. Eveyone is infected with mind numbing common sense. Even the prostitutes are boring. So, when Marge Gunderson goes to investigate three homocides in Brainerd, examines one of the dead bodies shot execution style, pieces together the previous night's deadly sequence of events perfectly, and leans over to vomit, it seems like maybe something finally got under someone's skin.

But, relax, Marge isn't upset. It's just her morning sickness. "I'd be very surprised if our suspect was from Brainerd," Marge remarks with characteristic common sense.

This is the point at which Marge's life collides with Jerry Lundegaard's life. Jerry Lundegaard is a loser spiralling down into Greater Loserdom. Owing a great deal more money than he can make selling cars, Jerry cooks up a scheme to have his wife kidnapped, have his wealthy father-in-law pay a huge ransom, and then split the ransom with his co-conspirators. This scheme goes about as well as everything else in Jerry's life.

First it looks like Jerry's father-in-law new found interest in an investment Jerry has been pitching will save Jerry from financial ruin, but Jerry can't contact his co-conspirators to abort the kidnapping. After the kidnapping takes place, Jerry's bull-headed father-in-law can't follow the rules that Jerry says the kidnappers have imposed and botches the return of Jerry's wife. Finally, the inept criminals Jerry has engaged to kidnap his wife leave clues strewn all over Minnesota, including the three bodies in Brainerd.

As the triple homicide investigation proceeds, Marge decides to drive from Brainerd to the Twin Cities. Officially, Marge travels south to check up on some phone calls from the kidnappers to a mechanic who works with Jerry at the car dealership, the mechanic who introduced Jerry to his kidnappers. Off the record, Marge decides to meet with an old high school flame, Mike, who phones Marge after seeing her on a television news story about the murders.

In a strange lapse of common sense, Marge arranges to meet Mike at the Radisson for lunch. But Marge ends up rebuffing Mike's pathetic seduction. Later, talking to a mutual friend, Marge finds out that Mike lied to her and has had psychiatric problems. In Marge's world, this is as close as we will get to infidelity. Cheating could lead to an exciting but dangerous entanglement with a manipulative, psychotic man -- so why bother? In some ways, this also is Marge's glimpse of Jerry Lundegaard's world. Mike's demons are not all that different than Jerry's. All of a sudden, the beige predictability of Brainerd looks pretty good compared to the blood red craziness of the Twin Cities.

Marge returns to Brainerd and solves the homocides. Not before all the wheels have come off of Jerry Lundegaard's life. But just in time to settle in bed with her normal husband and talk about the unimportant life events that make life so important in Fargo.





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