Abby (Francis McDormand) is cheating on her saloonkeeper husband, Marty (Dan Hadaya). The object of her affections is Ray (John Getz), one of Marty's bartenders. Marty hires Visser (M. Emmett Walsh), an unscrupulous detective, to kill them. But Visser has other, more lucrative plans of his own. So begins hilarity ensuing and a calculating round of double and triple crosses that build to a bloodcurdling, surprise-filled climax.
Trivia: A teaser trailer for the film was shot long before the movie was in production. It featured Bruce Campbell (filling in for the role later played by Dan Hedaya) bloody and crawling down the road, just like the movie. Holly Hunter had auditioned for the role of Abby, but turned it down because she was performing a play in New York at the same time. So she encouraged her roommate Frances McDormand to go and audition for the role (It was McDormand's first big screen role). While M. Emmett Walsh's character is named "Loren Visser" in the screenplay, his character is never actually named in the film (his cigarette lighter has "Loren" written on it), and he is listed as "Private Investigator" in the credits. Holly Hunter's voice is on Meurice's answering machine.
First a little bit about the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance was started in 1978 as the Utah/US Film Festival in an effort to attract more filmmakers to Utah. At the time, the main focus of the event was to present a series of retrospective films and filmmaker panel discussions; however it also included a small program of films made outside the Hollywood system, commonly known as independent films. Management of the festival was taken over by the Sundance Institute, a non-profit organization, in 1985, and in 1991 the festival was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival. Many famous independent filmmakers, including Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, James Wan and Jim Jarmusch had their big break at Sundance. It is also responsible for bringing wider attention to films such as Saw, The Blair Witch Project, Better Luck Tomorrow, Primer, Songbird, El Mariachi, Clerks, sex, lies, and videotape, and Napoleon Dynamite. The Sundance Film Festival was named by Robert Redford, who founded the Sundance Institute in 1981, after his character The Sundance Kid from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, probably because this is his favorite character among those he played. With this project I will be watching the winners of the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic films (as apposed to the Documentary category, although I might tackle them later).
Okay, to the movie. This is the first movie written and directed by the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan). Some of their other movies include Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou? So they have a pretty good track record. This was a pretty good start for the brothers. The double crosses and triple crosses and mistaken identity aspects are done very well. Francis McDormand was good considering that this was her first acting job. Dan Hedaya is a little creepy but he always seems to play the slightly creepy character. If you don't recognize the name just find a picture of him and you will say "oh yeah, that guy!" Same thing with E. Emmet Walsh. He is one of those solid character actors you see in everything.
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