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The real problem is that Carl and Gaear are not the brightest of crooks, motoring with Jean on the backseat and dealers plates on the car. A traffic cop stops them for this minor infraction and, before they know it, there's three corpses lying besides the icy road (the other two are innocent motorists who happened to be passing). In the cold light of the morning, Brainerd police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) is kneeling besides the bodies and deducing (with uncanny accuracy) the events which have transpired. In a welcome change to the standard movie persona, Marge is smart, perceptive and tenacious even though she's both a woman and seven months pregnant. Tracking down the miscreants requires piecing together numerous scraps of information, such as where Carl and Gaear stayed and who they phoned from the motel.
Marge is fully equal to the task and finds herself inexorably drawn towards Jerry's dealership. In accordance with his desire to extract a large sum of money from Wade, Jerry has convinced all concerned to keep Jean's kidnapping secret from the cops. Unfortunately Wade is rather attached to his fortune (which is how he came by it) and genuinely desperate to retrieve his daughter. Hence he wants to deal with Carl and Gaear on his own terms, which doesn't involve using Jerry as a middle-man. While Marge continues her investigation she can sense that Jerry is hiding something, although it's not obvious why or what. Whenever the topic of a certain car arises he shys away, clumsily trying to avoid trapping himself. Enlivened by scattered interludes, the characters relentlessly gravitate together.
From the opening frames Fargo promises an unusual experience, as one car drags another through a dirty white blizzard. At first only the merest hint of an outline is glimpsed, subtle contrasts in grey, before the automobile hoves into view in a more concrete form. Such images saturate Fargo, providing a bleak landscape upon which drops of blood stand prominent and a plain backdrop for elegant construction of scenes. Within this provincial setting a wealth of bizarre characters are brought forth, each with their own particular mannerisms (which both set them apart from and bind them together with others). That each of these individuals is strongly defined, even though many play minor roles, reflects well on the Coen brothers script. It's easy to pick Marge as an example of their skill; she is strong, feminine, businesslike and caring. However, even monosyllabic Gaear is far more than a stereotype.
Fortunately the actors are perfect for the script, each surrounding their character with a type of aura which indicates how dedicated they were to performing well. It would be easy to wax lyrical on the double-edged humour of Fargo, the superb cinematography and the little touches which make this movie something special. Suffice to say that the Coen brothers have put forth an outstanding film, within which I can detect no fault.
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