CNF: My Mother Hates the Movie FARGO
by Courtney LeBlanc
Thinks it portrays the state she loves more than her daughter as small. Backwards. A frozen tundra. Plus, she argues they got the accent wrong but every time I talked to my father, Oooh Courtney, how ya doin’? rolled out of his mouth and I can confirm: Frances McDormand nailed the accent. And that scene where Steve Buscemi buries the money in the snow-filled ditch and he looks one way and it’s just a blanket of white stretched as far as he can see and then he looks in the other direction and it’s the same—yeah, that was my childhood. And my childhood was great, my playground: our entire farm, wide open for miles, but I always felt caged in so I left as soon as I could. Now I hate winter, can’t stand the cold, have only returned for one Christmas in twenty-six years. I recently rewatched the movie, it still holds up. My relationship with my mother is complicated, frozen for years, my father’s death thawed it a bit. I don’t talk to her much but I call her the credits rolled. I wanted my father’s voice in my ears, those long Os, the way he laughed at the woodchipper scene. I try not to cry when she picks up.
Courtney LeBlanc is the author of the four full-length collections, most recently Her Dark Everything and Her Whole Bright Life (winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize). She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate Emerita and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She’s also the founder of the Poetry Coven, a monthly generative workshop. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning. Find her online at www.courtneyleblanc.com.
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “My Mother Hates the Movie Fargo”? With regards to this piece, I was always amused by the scene in the movie where Steve Buscemi buries the money in the ditch and my first reaction was, “Yup, that’s exactly how it is.” Anyone who isn’t from North Dakota or hasn’t lived there might think it’s an exaggeration or an opportunity for a bit of humor in the movie but it isn’t, it is a dead-accurate portrayal of an ND winter. And to me it also captures a feeling of loneliness and loss — just the wide open expanse of white with nothing to break it up. It felt perfect to include in this piece.
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