Fargo...Jessica

[J.D. P. Lafrance]

RICHARD ROMEO <RR.TFCNY at mail.fdncenter.org>,Internet writes:
> Am I the only one who found Fargo mean, violent,  and not very funny?  It 
> could be I disagreed with what people were laughing at in the 
> audience--the kidnap victim being thrown down the stairs, the japanese 
> guy who's wife died. and those accents, ok the first couple of times it's 
> funny but it got tiresome.  


i think that is a valid observation but it's hard to say... in Fargo, the Coens
don't telegraph how you should react to anything! where most films are so
overtly obvious in that you must laugh here or cry here or whatever, the Coens'
films seem to be mostly devoid of that kind of manipulation. both times i went
to see it in the theatres people were laughing at all different parts and no one
scene, moment, or action garnered a theatre-wide reaction. Fargo (and other Coen
films) seem to have the ability of provoking a distinctly personal reaction as
opposed to a mass one. but i think the violence in the film was semi-humourous
 at the very least clumsy to offset the viciousness of it. i wouldn't say that
the violence was necessarily funny but rather absurd.

bfn,
JDL