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Fargo is all about losers. The whole movie consists of people who absolutely suck in doing the right thing or making the right choice. The only exception is Marge, played by Frances McDormand, whose character as a pregnant cop is just one step smarter then the rest of the cast. This cast consists of countless quirky characters all with their own defects…
Let’s start with Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) who is a carsalesman in the carshop owned by his father-in-law who doesn’t think of him all that much, well practically nothing actually. He tries to get something for himself off the ground but next to some big plan he already is in debt and needs cash really quickly. Instead of trying his luck in the casino he figures that the best way to do this is to let a few dumb petty crooks kidnap his wife and hold her for the enormous amount of ransom of $ 80.000,- and then split that money with the crooks. That’s the version he tells them as in reality he’s going to let his father-in-law pay a million, he would snatch the $ 920.000,- add his $ 40.000,- and his moneyproblems would be over. Sounds water- and fireproof to me…
Well not really actually, and of course it doesn’t go as planned, mainly because of the quirkyness and braindamage every character seems to have. The two crooks sometimes think they’re are on top of their game when even a simple abduction seems to be too hard. They are quyite the pair; one of the almost never speaks, the other constantly. They have problems abducting a woman and even forget to put on the licenseplates on their car, which they’ve gotten from Jerry which gives them an immediate link to him. They’re pulled over by a state trooper which they try to bribe. When he doesn’t take the money he’s forced to take a bullet. From this point on the blood starts flowing, Marge enters the scene and the whole scheme goes haywire. When you see what’s happening, you can’t be helping thinking: If he would just do this and that the whole scheme would go either or unaltered or Jerry would have gotten off perfectly. But Fargo is all about losers…
The quirkiness of the characters resembles Twin Peaks. I was just waiting for someone to start talking to a log and claiming it knows more. Well, the average log will no doubt outsmart the inhabitants of Fargo, I assure you. But this quirkiness adds an extra layer and it really is quite funny from time to time. The abduction scene is one fine example as we see one of the abductors, dressed in burglar-outfit walk up to a large window and looking right through it. All this is gazed upon by Jerry’s wife sits in her chair calmly and looks at the burglar looking through her window. He sees him and does absolutly nothing but stare and ponder, while he shoud be seeing her as she’s sitting right in front of the window but he keeps on checking the window.
This and tons of other small things make the movie an instant-classic
