Fargo

The Coen brothers' unique visual style and quirky sense of humour are superbly put to work in this blackly comic kidnap drama.

In a cold and snowy Minnesota in 1987, debt-ridden car salesman Jerry (William H. Macy) hires two thugs to kidnap his wife and collect a ransom from her rich father.

When the hapless pair shoot a state trooper and two innocent bystanders, the local Police Chief's (Frances McDormand, in an Oscar-winning role) leads keep coming back to the suspicious-looking Jerry.

Creating an array of intriguing characters, the Coens' script is a triumph of understated humour that earned them an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.