The debut work from the Coen brothers, Blood Simple is the story of a bar owner (a sleazy Dan Hedaya) who hires an unscrupulous private eye to murder his adulterous wife (McDormand) and her lover, one of his employees. As you would hope, events don�t quite run smoothly otherwise it would be really quite boringly brief, and so we get a twisting, darkly humorous tale which is very similar to Fargo in showing simple folk learning that not only does crime not pay but it can have serious repercussions.
The budget is tight and any events incidental to plot development are rare (although the cul-de-sac is damn funny), but that plot is packed in so tight that it doesn�t really matter. The futility of murder is brought home by showing just how ludicrous the whole situation is, with the Coen�s already showing a talent for finding hilarity in bleakness, and you will groan out loud at some of the desperately stupid attempts at covering up the various crimes. With a seriously unexpected �Oh. Is that the end then?� type ending, this is a head above the usual crime flick. And they only got better from here. |
