She doesn't really give us much to be sympathetic for.
Instead we laugh at her when she gets tangles up in the shower curtain and then later on when she tries to run away when the criminals first get to the hideout.
Other than that, she mostly just whimpers.
I would feel bad for her, maybe even cry, if they gave us more of a reason to feel bad.
Humans are not the only species on earth.
We just act like it.

Not to mention the car-park attendant and Jean's father. Sure Jean's father was an unappealing character but he didn't deserve what happened to him.
Anyway, after watching the first for the first time since it was release in cinemas I still think it is the best Coen Brothers film to date.

Why would you ask that about her but not also about the cop killed on the road at night, or the two people in the car trying to escape in the night? None of them are less important than the other. Each one was tragic.
Marge

Frances McDormand's speech at the end, saves this film from being completely heartless.
I found her speech unnecessary, even preachy although stating the obvious. It was my least favorite part of an orherwise excellent movie.

I also think the relationship with Marge between Marge and her husband save the film in that films in that respects, too. Otherwise the film would be a little too schadenfreude in that regard.
Kiss my black ass! Toodles!

I agree.

Frances McDormand's speech at the end, saves this film from being completely heartless.

There is a heartless quality to Fargo that I don't like. Jean is portrayed as such a ridiculous characiture that most viewers don't give her death a second thought much less think about her son. I had read somewhere that Frances McDormand had to fight to keep Margie from becoming a silly comic character. I guess it helped that she's, you know, "family."
One reason I like the Coen's version of True Grit:
it's Coen Bros
with heart.
.

That is more than sad. All she had was a loveless marriage, a dissociated son, a domineering father and no future. Kidnapped and killed.

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