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movie review - Fargo

The Boy (aged seventeen) and I watched this as it's on a "movie bucket list" poster I gave him for Christmas. I have to say, it has held up very well for a thirty-year-old thriller. It seems to be a genre that suffers from being dated. I suppose it depends on the era in which it was made, but thrillers from the sixties, seventies, and eighties frequently have music, clothing, or film stock that was very distinctive, whereas things began to settle down in the nineties. The last time I heard someone referring to "here in the '90s" was only around 2022.

That aside, this is a movie about a man who unexplained but severe money trouble. He's a car salesman in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has been bilking GMAC, the finance wing of the General Motors organization for which he works, out of a quarter million dollars. Things get so bad that he concocts a plan to have his wife kidnapped so that her wealthy father will pay a giant random. Finding some accomplices through connections at the dealership, he sets the thing in motion despite not understanding even the broad strokes of what he's gotten into. A couple of mistakes by one of the kidnappers causes three murders including that of a state trooper. This draws significant attention, starting with the chief of police in the jurisdiction where it happened, way out in the middle of nowhere.

I enjoyed the plot and pacing, the ripples in the tone that kept the whole thing on track, and the depiction of the mid-West's underworld. Some of the levity falls and seems out of place, and the naivete of the fellow who puts everything in motion is a miss-step given how smart some of the characters are and act. But on the whole I enjoy this, and it seemed to be a hit with The Boy.

Strongly recommended.