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FROZEN RIVER Send This Review to a Friend
The most accomplished film that I saw at the 2008 New Directors/New films series was “Frozen River,” now in commercial release. This unusual drama, written and directed by Courtney Hunt, details the economic struggle of an upstate New York mother to raise her two sons after her gambling-addicted husband takes off with money intended to buy a new home and move from their trailer. But the power of the film lies in picturing a parallel struggle of a Native American woman and the involvement of both women in smuggling illegal immigrants across the border from Canada into the United States as a means of getting cash.
The story is one of desperation, risk and suspense, and in the process light is shed on a corner of the world not generally brought to the attention of the public or dramatized on film. The acting is superb, including by the extraordinary Melissa Leo as Ray Eddy, the trailer mom, and Misty Upham as Lila Littlewolf, who lives on a Mohawk reservation and has her own goal—retrieving her baby son from a mother-in-law determined to raise him as her own.
These are broken lives that need fixing, and in the course of the tense, riveting drama the two women bond under their unusual circumstances. The audience is urged to feel for both of them as they work desperately to solve their respective problems and their fates are tossed together.
Hunt packs her film with visual detail and maintains the tension as events escalate and the complications mount. “Frozen River” bids to find a popular niche among audiences who like films that are special as opposed to Hollywood juggernauts. Although the story is grim, there is an uplifting quality thanks to the incisive character portraits and sympathy engendered for Ray and Lila. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
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