Out of all of the Cohen Brothers' films I only really had time for Fargo(1996). This is because the majority of their tales seem dreadfully bleak and depressingly heavy. Fargo on the other hand has a beacon of goodness and hope in its story, in the character of rural police chief Marge Gunderson ( the terrific Frances McDormand). Gunderson's open eyed gentleness and maternal softness offset the rest of Fargo's mean,sick and evil characters which gives the whole piece a sense of hope. In the end we actually went to see Hallam Foe (2007) instead of the Cohen's latest, and despite being a confusing mixture of indie flick Catcher in the Rye and a study of teenage grief (the indie flick worked better), we kind of enjoyed it.
Jamie Bell was quite good as the "complicated" teen as was Sophia Myles ( as a H.R. tart -with-a-heart) trouble is that director David Mackenzie didn't know just where to lead the story, so in the end, the whole thing seemed to parody itself and get lost somehow.
