This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 6:02 pm and is filed under Academy Awards - best picture winners and nominees, Drama, F, Mob, Crime and Scam Movies, Thriller/Mystery, True Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Joel Cohen
Starring: William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Harve Presnell, Frances McDormand, John Carroll Lynch,
Well, Geez, these Cohen fellas, they sure can write. Oh Yah, done alot of that directing stuff , too. You’re darn tooting, Yah, Oh Yah, geez! Okay, I think I’ve gone as far with that as I can. There is a great, unpredictable tale, typical of the twisted Coen brothers’ style, but this is their best project so far. The characters are wonderful, rife with the quirks that make movie characters stick with us and are brought to life with spectacular performances by all the lead actors. The Coens are noted for their natural dialog and that reputation is confirmed here as they catch the patois of Minnesota/North Dakota, though I found it exaggerated and distracting at first. This setting builds in incredible irony and allows a constant stream of subtle humor as all the characters from the area constantly strive to be polite and upbeat. New York, this ain’t. Years, and several viewings, later I wouldn’t have it any other way.
William H. Macy is Jerry Lundegaard, a man with a desperate to achieve financial success to escape the crushing oppression of his domineering father-in-law (Harve Presnell). He comes up with a shocking plan to have his gentle wife kidnapped and skim off the bulk of the ransom cash. He hires Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Peter Stomare) to pull off the kidnapping, but their bungling soon brings about an investigation by clever, and very pregnant, sheriff, Marge Gunderson played by McDormand in an amazing, Oscar-winning performance. It is a tribute to the Coen’s genius that when McDormand told them she was pregnant, rather than re-casting, delaying shooting or using tricks to hide it, they wrote it into the script and made the story even stronger. The ending is wonderful, sensible and memorable.
This is an off-beat crime drama, apparently based on a true story, that is refreshingly unlike anything that pops into my head besides other Coen films, like Blood Simple or little known gems like Red Rock West and A Simple Plan. If you haven’t seen it, well, geez, thats just something that you are going to have to work on isn’t it? You’re darn tootin’!
