This movie was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (William H. Macy). It won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Frances McDormand) and Best Writing (the Coen Brothers).

Fargo is certainly one of the Coen's finest and most famous movies. It claims to faithfully relate a true story that occurred between Fargo, North Dakota and Minnesota's Twin Cities in the late 1960s. The real story is anything but funny. But, this movie has its share of both humor and of black humor.

The movie begins in Fargo as Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) is making contact with two "professional" thugs to arrange for his own wife's kidnapping. Jerry, a car dealer from Minneapolis, with big personal money problems, wants his wife kidnapped because he knows his father-in-law is very wealthy and will pay the ransom for his own daughter.

The idea is that once his father-in-law pays off the thugs and his wife is released, and he can split the ransom with the thugs. HOWEVER, once the deal is made and Jerry gives them one of the cars off of the lot, things start to go downhill when the quitter of the two thugs kills a policeman for stopping them to ask why the car has no tags. The killing of the policeman leads to two other passersby being killed.

After this triple homicide, Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), a pregnant cop is called into the case. As the movie develops—and the kidnapping scheme unravels—we are entertained by both the stories and characterizations of Marge's friends and family as well as Jerry Lundegaard's constantly frustrating and deteriorating predicament(s).