Built around a sweet, polite, small-town police officer and her attempts to solve a murderous mystery seemingly by being as nice as possible, this strangely pleasant yet decidedly dark tale is somewhat satirical and screams 'Coen' as soon as it starts, with a totally phoney 'based on a true story' title-card that's supposed to excuse some of the more extreme coincidences and absurd-isms found in the plot. 'Fargo (1996)' is an entertaining time that feels as home-spun as its supposed to, doesn't always take the expected route and focuses on fairly realistic characters who are mostly atypical of the usual archetypes found in this type of story, but it is also sometimes slow and meandering, too (which is actually Coen trademark). 7/10