Filmmakers Joel Coen and Ethan Coen return to their home state of Minnesota for this wry look at murder and Midwestern mores. The intricate plot centers on Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy), a bumbling car salesman whose desperate need for capital inspires him to hire a pair of criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrid); he reasons that her wealthy father Wade (Harve Presnell) will pay the kidnappers' ransom demands, which Jerry himself will then collect. The crime plot quickly goes haywire, however, when a Minnesota policeman and a pair of innocent travellers end up brutally slain, bringing the pregnant and deceptively simple Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) into the fray. Employing the snowy Minnesota landscape as a tabula rasa on which to create their violent, blackly comic tale, the Coen brothers' vision of small-town life is composed of equal parts satire, violence, and affection: given to such phrases as "You betcha!" and "Golly!," the characters reveal unexpected depths and motivations as the story twists and turns. While exploring the themes of crime, greed, and deceit first treated in their acclaimed debut film Blood Simple (1984), the Coens depict both the simple pleasures and the utter desperation of everyday Midwestern life; Fargo features moments of genuine human warmth that the duo's other films lack, typified by the pivotal presence of Marge Gunderson, the closest thing to a hero that the brothers have yet concocted. Perhaps as a result, Fargo was their most widely seen and acclaimed effort, including Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress.