"Fargo" Not That Far From the Truth...

...Or is it? I recently had the opportunity to watch a movie that many people have always recommended to me. The thing I noticed in the first few seconds of the film? The words on the screen:

Based on a true story.

You may say, 'So what?' It's a true story, so it should be even more intriguing to the viewers who will sit through 2-hours of a real-life account. It's no fabricated fairy tale of a story from the imaginations of the screenwriters, the directors, the actors who add their own quirkiness to a character role. It's based on real people with real experiences, real emotions, real actions that had real consequences.

Except there is one thing the Coen brothers (who directed the film) forgot to mention. It's actually not a true story. Not even close. But hey, they thought they'd throw that phrase in there for the fun of it.

Beside the fact that the story starts off misleading, it's actually a good movie. The plot focuses on two men hired by a husband to kidnap his wife for a ransom. The kidnapping leads to a series of other murders, which are investigated by a pregnant police chief (played by Frances McDormand -- who later went on to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for the role).

Perhaps one of the most notable features of the film has to be the speech of the characters. As the story is based in North Dakota and Minnesota, it is fairly shocking for an outsider to hear the native regional accent chock-full of the use of "yah" and "you betcha," accompanied with emphatic head-nodding. It definitely adds another element to the movie, making it almost inappropriate to laugh at their lingo when characters are on-screen discussing a gruesome murder scene.

Overall, though, a recommended movie.

So what do you think? Does it bother you if they claim it's a true story, when it isn't? Or is it just a tactic of Hollywood cinema to amp up the buzz about a film?