Fargo

Contains spoilers.

Fargo is a generally funny tale, punctuated by at least six moments of pure, gruesome horror. Its comedic undertone is made in part by the quirkiness of the characters. I loved all of them, especially Jerry, the manager of sales, who handled himself so perfectly until things started going wrong. He was able to smooth talk out of things for a while but not to the point where just words would do.

Marge in this movie represents the intellectual. She was able to deduce the crime scene in a few minutes, while another officer was standing by, repeating "oh yeah, oh." He was useful though... for holding her coffee. She single-handedly solved the case, and as _ said, not in a Sherlock Homes way but in a realistic way. Her husband, though not as bright as she is, cares for her and is a good fit right there (a life that actually worked out). I guess he wouldn't be bright enough to cook up that kind of plot.

The repetition of a few lines such as "Oh yeah? No kidding." in the movie really drove home the dialogue of mid-westerners. Dialogue played a role in giving the film a genuine feel.

Marge had to lower her intellectual level to be able to extract information from witnesses. The directors weren't afraid to stereotype or to show the slow women in bed with the weird-looking guy and the emotionless guy.

The spontaneity of things just happening adds to the authenticity. I don't know about you, but it seemed to me the homicides occured between the shots of the Brainerd man statue. He appeared, then someone died, and he appeared, etc.

Every character must have been there for a reason. Then what about Max, the Asian guy? A plot device may be a reason, to lead Marge to Minnesota.

Kudos to the directors for the transitions. One memorable one was zooming into the busted TV at the murderers' den and using that to switch over to Marge's house. White was the dominant color (with all that snow), and transitions often faded to white. The movie starts and ends with the shots of cars, which were really the moving device--now that I come to think of it, so many shots were of cars, in cars or around cars.