****
DVD Release
When Jerry Lundegaard lands in
financial troubles, he hires two hit-men to kidnap his wife in the hope that
her father will pay the ransom. However, everything soon spirals out of control
and, with the body-count rising, heavily-pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson
steps into the ring.
This is quite an odd little film.
For starters, there is no exposition about the lives of the main characters –
we only know them from what they do in the film as there is not ‘background’
information on them. This gives the
suggestion that we are just looking in on a tiny snapshot of their lives.
Subsequently, all of the characters seem quite distant from us as the viewer,
but this doesn’t impinge on the film as you only really begin to notice at the
end. The overall tone is extremely dark, and whilst there are some moments of
black-humour (one such moment involves a wood-chipper), the film is mostly gory
and a disturbing study into what man will do for money. Steve Buscemi and Peter
Stormare are very good as the mismatched hit-men who are just making it up as
they go along, and William H. Macy really excels in his role as Jerry
Lundegaard; a man desperate for control who can only watch helplessly as it
slips from his grasp. I didn’t quite know what to make of Frances McDormand’s
Marge Gunderson – I couldn’t decide whether I found her very engaging or very
annoying, but the relationship she has with her husband is definitely a joy to watch.
It is hauntingly shot in the
snowy landscape, with long shots of cars driving along long stretches of grey
tarmac, accompanied only by a very emotive soundtrack. The coldness and
whiteness of the landscape mirrors the alienation the audience feels towards
the characters – in the snow, some human infrastructure is still recognisable,
but it is mostly concealed, like the truth about the characters shown.
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