Something
about the Minnesota accent must get lost when translated into Japanese, at
least judging from one unhappy office worker’s strange obsession. She is convinced the briefcase full of cash
buried in final scenes of the Coen Brothers’ Fargo is really out there, waiting to be discovered. Her strange
delusion will eventually take her to the fateful North Dakota border in the
Zellner Brothers’ Kumiko the Treasure
Hunter,
which
screens today at the Sundance Film Festival.
It
is not clear whether Kumiko’s obsession has crowded out other aspects of her
life or whether it has grown to fill the pre-existing void in her gloomy existence. Regardless, her work as an “Office Lady” (fetching
coffee and dry cleaning for her boss) remains profoundly unfulfilling. That she
is conspicuously older than her bimbo colleagues is a fact not lost on her,
either. Her only solace comes from her pet rabbit Bunzo and watching a well
worn VHS copy of Fargo, constantly
scribbling notes that only make sense to her
When
Kumiko finally reaches her breaking point at work, she absconds with the
corporate card and books a flight to Minneapolis. This is not a well planned trip. Kumiko
carefully collects all her Fargo material,
but neglects to consider adequate winter gear. Yet, as she makes her way north,
several locals will try to look out for her, as best they can. The wider world
is not really such a cold place in Treasure.
Kumiko just has trouble fitting into it. That forgiving spirit is one reason
why it is such an oddly moving film.
With
the right distributor behind her, Rinko Kikuchi might stand a chance of landing
her second Oscar nomination for Kumiko. It is a quiet performance, but
absolutely devastating in its power. She vividly projects the acute sensitivity
and compulsive focus that make Kumiko more closely akin to outsider artists
than routine nutters. David Zellner (the director and co-writer half of the
Zellner filmmaking tandem) is also quite funny yet also rather touching, in an
admirably understated way, as the sheriff’s deputy who tries to help
Kumiko. Bunzo is cute too.
It
is too bad nobody from Fargo signed
on for a cameo, because there is an obvious place where the Fellners could have
put them. Evidently, when you land a hit HBO series, you quit caring about
independent film. Still, fans of the Coen
Brothers’ film will appreciate all the references. Ironically, Alexander Payne
recently signed on as an executive producer, just before he was nominated for Nebraska and the Coens were snubbed for Llewyn Davis (none of which he could
control).