Take Five
By George Rose
July 28, 2009
These events take place in Minnesota and Fargo, North Dakota in 1987, and it is here that Carl and Gaear kidnap this housewife, whose father is a very wealthy man. This is why Jerry planned the setup to begin with, because his family has no faith in him (and rightfully so) and he thinks the only way he'll be happy is if he gets this money and makes the investment. Money is all he cares about. After he comes home to see his wife is missing, he takes a few moments to practice the phone call he'll make to his father-in-law. There is no end to his greed and no beginning to his remorse. When his family insists that they call the cops, he refuses, claiming the best way to handle the kidnappers is to give in to their demand to remain under the radar. Should the cops become involved, he won't be able to arrange the pickup of his half of the money, which actually isn't $40,000. He tells his father-in-law the ransom is $1,000,000, which he eventually agrees to pay. When Carl and Gaear, after being forced to kill a few innocent bystanders, demand they keep the entire $80,000, Jerry pitches a fit. As if $920,000 isn't enough money to buy a crummy piece of land.
Enter Margie (Best Actress Oscar winner Frances McDormand), a local cop on the hunt to solve the initial three homicides. She is great at what she does, solving the pieces of the murders just seen in the movie with ease. Better yet, she is a good person. Scratch that, she is a wonderful person. A loving wife, helpful coworker and all around chipper woman, it barely bothers me when she opens her mouth and spews that thick North Dakota accent. I would have screamed, "It's not ‘oh yaaah?' It's ‘OH, YEAH?'" if I weren't so in love with her character. Her pregnant cop routine is so charming and deserving of the Oscar that the movie stops feeling like a depressing drama and feels like an upbeat character piece. She fearlessly follows the tracks of Carl and Gaear, only stopping occasionally to have a meal with her adoring husband.
By the end of the film, written by Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen and directed by Joel, only one questions remains: what happens with the son? Giving away the ending would be a travesty, since you should all go rent this fantastic movie. But since it is a true story, I would have liked to know what happened with the child. My only guess is that he's in a mental institution for having likely been informed afterwards what happened to his entire family. This might be an extreme guess, but it's all I have since it's the one plot point left out. Regardless, the movie is amazing and should immediately be added to your list of movies to rent in the near future.
Overall Rating: A-
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