Fargo (1996) is a dark tragic comedy. It tells the story of the tragic intersection of multiple characters where it ends badly for almost all of them.

The overlay for the movie is the open plains of the Dakotas in winter - cold and snowy. Beautiful cinematography throughout keeps that cold theme front and center. Nothing much should happen in such an area, you think, but that's why this is so interesting a story because a lot happens.

The intersecting characters are the police woman (Frances McDormand), her loving husband, supporting police, a car salesman, his family, and a couple of crazy bad guys.

The plot starts out as pretty simple, but then many bad twists and turns take the movie into very dark places for many characters. You ask, are people really like this? That's what the movie wants you to question.

McDormand is almost a version of Columbo or Monk, who seems slow, but is really figuring things out. The used car dealer is the quintiscential slime ball, played brilliantly by William Macey. Steve Buscemi is one of the screwball bad guys and he nails that role. Solid acting by all helps make this a terrific film.

You will laugh at the poke at how the locals talk and act. I don't know if that's real, but it was funny. But that's about it for laughs. Any laughing you do is followed by sighs and yeuch sounds. The movie twists you around a lot.

Fargo is not clean. It could have been edited tighter. The whole bringing in of an old school friend seemed non-essential, unless the directors wanted you to see that McDormand was one of the lucky ones who turned out ok in this neck of the woods.

Fargo is a worthwhile movie with great acting and an interesting story. Just be prepared for some sensibility-testing scenes, especially the ending. Enjoy.