Close Up

27 March 2016: Fargo

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Fargo
Ethan and Joel Cohen
1996 | 94 min | Colour | DCP

Car salesman Jerry Lundegaard hires low-lifes Carl and Gaear to kidnap his wife, hoping that her wealthy father will pay a ransom from which Jerry can cream a share. The abduction goes according to plan, but the kidnappers commit three murders as they drive by night through the snowy Minnesota wastes. Police chief Marge Gunderson, a slow-talkin', smart-thinkin', pregnant housewife, investigates. Joel and Ethan Coen's beguiling film is both very funny and, finally, very moving. Performed to perfection by an imaginatively assembled cast, it displays the customary Coen virtues, at the same time providing a robust emotional core unaffected by the taint of mere technical virtuosity.

Part of our Coen Brothers season