“Fargo” is often considered to be the best film by the Coen brothers but I prefer both “The Big Lebowski” and “Raising Arizona” but this film does feature some very entertaining sections, it’s a real shame there are some less enjoyable components here.

“Fargo” is based on a true story as we find Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy “Jurassic Park III”, “Magnolia”) hire hit men (Steve Buscemi “Reservoir Dogs”, Peter Stormare “Bad Boys II”) to kidnap his wife so he can raise enough ransom money for his phoney hostage situation to pay his debts but things go wrong, people die and who will be left is unclear.

William H. Macy plays the role of Lundegaard brilliantly and appears very realistic. I also enjoyed the performances of Buscemi and Stormare although not as much as Macy. The real problem with the film is with the female police officer Marge Gunderson played terribly by Frances McDormand (“Almost Famous”) as she seems as if she is meant as comedic relief but not only is she woefully unfunny and annoying but she spoils some of the great drama found in other scenes of the film; thankfully she isn’t as big of a role as she could have been but she could have also been a lot smaller.

“Fargo” is a violent movie but it has lots of tension for the most part and in a lot of ways is a great film but the fact is the Marge Gunderson character solely serves as a means of distracting us from the tension and that’s a real shame because a good female police officer character could have done this film so real good. My favourite scene in the film is not the climax involving somebody in a wood chipper but rather the part where the hit men are pulled over by a policeman and have to do what it takes to escape the situation.