Your Turn: Marge Gunderson

From Fargo, directed by the Coen Brothers
Nominated by Laura Toepfer

Driven: Fargo's unflappable Marge Gunderson.

Gramercy Pictures

Marge Gunderson does not fit the mold of movie character cops. She's neither urban nor urbane. She's not hard-boiled or emotionally broken. She eats at the buffet, not at the bar. She's her own woman but doesn't need to demand it, and that's what makes her strong.

It's her strength that remains with me, and she showed me how to be independent while still asking for help. "Prowler needs a jump," is one of my favorite lines in the movie.

But her independence is genuine. She doesn't need to be rescued in the end. Instead, she can sorrowfully and optimistically tell the killer she has captured that it is, in her world, a beautiful day. She helps us to see that it is.

2:45 PM ET | 02-19-2008 | permalink

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