Sam Raimi's "Fargo" without the
sweep, innovation or strong characterizations. It settles for
snow and violence.
Three men, two of them brothers (Bill Paxton,
Billy Bob Thornton) find money. They try to keep it. Things go
terribly wrong in the process.
Thornton is deservedly nominated for best
supporting actor. He plays an alternatively canny and dimwitted
local yokel who unravels as "things go wrong." His
portrayal is crafty, and he captures the essence of the
childlike, simple brother who stays home to drink at the the same
bar and feed his dog in the same town with the same unemployment
office.
Raimi's direction is workmanlike and
forgettable. In the end, however, the script sinks the ship.
Paxton is dumber than a hound's tooth. Worse, he is singularly
disinteresting. He is the protoganist we are forced to follow,
more so than Thornton. Bridget Fonda plays his newly greedy wife,
a transformation that takes her over in a milisecond, making it
unconvincing and boring. In fact, it would be hard to cast two
thinner actors than Paxton and Fonda. Perhaps this was the
strategy, to show everyday folks turned to greedy dullards, but
they were everyday dullards first. The plan simply wasn't simple
enough for these snoozers.
