So, why is the movie called "Fargo"? Maybe it's because that's where chaos starts. For the next 98 minutes, we watch a hapless, smiley, terminally nervous Minneapolis car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), try to settle some debts by engineering the kidnapping of his docile wife and wangling a ransom from his millionaire father-in-law. This scheme blows up in his face after he hires the wrong thugs in Fargo: Steve Buscemi as motormouth Carl Showalter and Peter Stormare as taciturn Gaear Grimsrud. The error soon results in a triple murder, with more deaths to come. And we also watch local super-sleuth Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), the very pregnant police chief of the Minnesota town of Brainerd, as she relentlessly tracks them down.

The characters in Fargo are what keep the film going. Steve Buscemi plays Carl to perfection, talking too much and described as "funny looking". His colleague, Gaear is that shady silent type who likes to do things his own way and Peter Stormare delivers his threatening stares in a chilling way. For me, these two were the highlight of the film but William H. Macy pulls of Jerry brilliantly, displaying simultaneously a liar, a thief, a loving father and husband as well as ultimately a good guy whose life has taken a turn for the worse. Frances McDormand comically plays the traditional Minnesota local - good hearted and innocent and is a joy to watch. Fargo is deep, chilling and clever as well as very witty in places and is definitely worth seeing.

Overall rating: 9 out of 10.