content: With all the hooplah about this film, you may be surprised to discover how mannered, self-conscious and even mean-spirited it is. Cute dolts bundled up to look like Michelin men in the midwest solve a murder mystery amid miles and miles and more miles of snow. The audience is invited to laugh at working class people and feel superior, while at the same feeling a cozy nostalgia for American homespun values, represented by an ambitious but pregnant cop and her toy teddy bear husband. Yuck! As usual, the Coen Brothers think making their actors expressionless is artsy, but somehow William H. Macy springs the trap and goes his own way. He gives a marvelous performance (although he gives a better one in "Boogie Nights") so he rates a star. The other star goes to the two terrifying murderers (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) who, by being simply terrifying, manage at times to get the blood flowing in this otherwise overly precious, cold-hearted and negligible film.