Fargo

“A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere.”

Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) sells cars in small-town Minnesota, owes money he can't cover, and has settled on a way out: he hires two criminals to kidnap his wife and squeeze a ransom from her wealthy father. When the violence starts, it is pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) who begins following it back. Joel Coen shoots the white, flat country with a straight face and lets the bad ideas pile up in plain view.