Saw this again recently for it's anniversary, or 4k conversion, - who cares what the reason was, it was just great to see it up on the bg screen again. In my view, it's easily the best of efforts from both the Coen brothers and from the formidable Frances McDormand. Here, she is a pregnant local cop who must deal with a sudden spate of crimes in her magnificently named town "Brainerd". William H. Macy ("Jerry") and the usually under-rated Steve Buscemi ("Carl") add loads to value to this drama that offers an almost perfect mix of sharp and wittily written dialogue, some clever and poignant performances and a storyline that does border on the surreal at times, but then again we are in Minnesota so is it all that surreal at all? The deliberately staccato nature of the dialogue cannot help raise a smile and a cringe - but that is how it is meant to come across. It takes skill to act like these folks do here, dumbing up and dumbing down to order whilst keeping an eye to a vaguely serious series of underlying plot lines... You won't like all of the characters, indeed some people get their well deserved comeuppance but this is still one of the best films from the 1990s and well worth a watch on a big screen if you can.
