The Coen brothers' hit movie Fargo is haunted by a disturbing cast of characters. There is hardly a conventionally handsome face or traditionally appealing body among film's odd cast, whose corporeality often verges on the grotesque. The story is a simple one. Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) plots the kidnapping of his wife to get ransom money from her father, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell), who regards him with contempt. Furthermore, Jerry is in danger at his job because he has borrowed money on false pretences, and his debts are being called in. To perpetrate the kidnapping, Jerry hires a pair of bungling crooks, Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare). When the kidnap plan goes horribly wrong, Brainerd Police Chief Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) is called in to investigate.

Marge has a body that bespeaks its physicality in every scene. Heavily pregnant, she waddles through the snow, her swollen belly ballooning underneath her parka. We witness her ravenous appetite, as well as her suspicion that she is about to vomit – although this does not stop her from picking up a bag of “night crawlers” for Norm (John Carroll Lynch), her artist husband who likes to fish. Norm himself is a large, clumsy, clunking creature, and when the pair of them lie in bed together watching a nature documentary on the television, their joint bulk is conspicuous.