Weird as Hell, frozen over…MINNESOTA STYLE!
A film in which the Best Actress winner (Frances McDormand) doesn’t appear until there’s about an hour left in it.
I’m not saying she isn’t good – only William H. Macy as the snivelling, incompetent crime-organizer is as impressive – just struck me kinda weird is all.
The story’s a simple crime drama with a lot of odd twists. The reason it’s still simple despite having a lot of odd twists is that the odd twists have nothing to do with the crime drama. They have nothing to do with anything. They’re just THERE.
Hell, forget “twists”…totally irrelevant SCENES, as pertains to the actual story. No “alluding to” this or “establishing” that or “foreshadowing” this…they’re just THERE. Like, hey, we wrote this scene…let’s throw it in. The problem is, if you took all of them out you’d be left with…mmm, maybe 15-20 minutes of movie.
Basically, it’s mostly hollow and filled with sh1t.
(Sometimes)-Interesting sh1t, but sh1t nonetheless. Hit it with a stick and it’ll burst open. You’ll laugh, you’ll gasp, you’ll eat it up, you’ll walk away and move on with your completely unaffected and unmoved life.
I guess you could admire the way the Coen Brothers took a 20 minute crime drama and lengthened it out to 90+ minutes with “yah”‘s and “you betcha”‘s and Tarantino Pulp-era-reject throwaways. You COULD…I don’t, but you could.
But why would you want to WATCH it?
Grade: C+