Fargo

Set in the white wilderness of a Minnesotan winter, Fargo is laced with the blackest of macabre humour. The latest film from the idiosyncratic Coen brothers, Fargo imposes their surreal style on to a true story, in turn creating a cast of characters worthy of Twin Peaks and a plot straight from a crime thriller. When a mild mannered car salesman hires two thugs (a wonderfully lugubrious Steve Buscemi and perfect psychopath Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife so that he can claim the ransom, things spiral wildly beyond his control. The hired thugs shoot a state trooper and two innocent bystanders in Brainerd, Minnesota, and chief of police Marge Gunderson - strong-jawed and seven months pregnant - is brought in on her first homicide investigation. As she waddles from place to place in search of the perpetrators, she initially seems as comically hick as everyone else. But, as the woefully misguided real-life events unfold and every laugh is overshadowed by the Coen's extraordinarily bleak view of the human condition, Chief Gunderson's innate goodness shines on, ultimately redeeming the film's back heart. It's a chiaroscuro conceit which works, giving us the best Coen brothers film to date.

Reviewed by Monika Maurer

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