Fargo

Just as its mischievous and gleefully malevolent Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) carefully manipulates those around him to set an unstoppable sequence of mayhem into motion, Fargo takes scenes, themes, motivations, settings and actions from the Coen Brothers movie and radically rearranges them with deft skill to fashion a narrative bristling with dark comedy that, as it happens, feels both fated and yet wholly original. Allison Tolman’s Molly Solverson and Martin Freeman’s Lester Nygaard then revolve around Malvo as poles of good and bad, patient resolve and flailing desperation, on a board of play centered in Bemidji, Minnesota. Filmed beautifully, written and acted with grace, humor and gravity, Fargo sets a new standard for what is possible in the process of adaptation. The Midwest, snow, insurance salesmen and dentists never seemed so menacing, as the story goes beyond narrative to an almost mythic, folkloric level. For majestically reinventing a beloved tale and for expanding and richly rendering a darkly comic world of crime, revenge, and comeuppance, Fargo wins a Peabody Award.