8 This offbeat film begins with an advisory that, to protect the survivors, the names have been changed, but out of respect for the victims, virtually nothing else has. Though reminiscent of the films built around mayhem that made Sam Peckinpaw famous, it is also a strange paean to the state of Minnesota: the bleak frozen landscapes, the blowing snow and white haze that makes visability often little better than zero; the winters of endless subzero temperatures.

But it's also an homage to the people, the plains idioms and "idiots," to Paul Bunyan and Babe, and to people who smile too much even in the face of adversity, and say things like "he's kinda funny looking in a general way," and "yeah, ya betcha," when they agree with you. There's lots of grim humor.

Fargo, which should have been called "Brainerd," but that doesn't have quite the right ring to it, is the story of the son-in-law of a wealthy Twin Cities Oldsmobile dealer who hires a guy from Fargo, across the state line in North Dakota, to kidnap his wife so he'll be able to get a million dollars in ransom money from her father, who's otherwise not very supportive of the son-in-law's needs and ambitions.

It becomes a tragedy of errors, however, when the bad guy hired to do the job cuts in an even badder guy to help him, without knowing just how bad his accomplice is—the third film I saw in two weeks with that apparently all-too-likely plot complication (Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead and a TV movie about a kid hired by his teacher to get rid of her husband being the others).

The woman chief of detectives from Brainerd does a great spin on the "Columbo" approach to crime solving that should be talked about for decades. The cast of unknowns are all excellent. There are cinematic references to an even wierder predecessor, Stranger Than Paradise, but this is likely to be even longer remembered, one of '96's most discussed and analyzed films.

Again, there's little redeeming value, but this one's almost "must-see" just because it will have everybody talking.