So, that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money? There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that?

Fargo | 1996 | dir. Joel & Ethan Coen 

Red in Fargo (1996) dir. Joel & Ethan Coen

There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.

So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.

Fargo (1996) dir. The Coen Brothers

One of my favorite “mini-master acting class” movie moments is the scene where Marge Gunderson is interviewing William H. Macy’s character, watching him sweat and flail and desperately grab for his slipping mask of respectability and he says….I don’t remember what to her, it’s been a while, and without her shifting a muscle in her seat her eyes suddenly lose that sweet veneer of ya-sure-you-betcha Midwestern friendliness and she says softly, “There’s no need to get snippy with me, sir, I’m just doing my job,” and the words feel like exactly what they are: “I may be an incredibly pregnant small-town sheriff waddling from crime scene to crime scene in an earflap hat but don’t fuck with me, buddy.” All the best actors are character actors at heart.

Well, the little guy was kinda funny-lookin’.

There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’t you know that?  And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day.  Well, I just don’t understand it.    

Fargo (1996)

“There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.”

There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.