BY EMIL TIEDEMANN
At times Frozen River would remind me of other movies I'd seen, good movies at that, but in the end it stood on its own, and brushed off any of those aforementioned comparisons, as there really hasn't been a movie like this that I could remember.
Melissa Leo--who appeared in no less than 8 films last year alone--deglamourized her underrated Hollywood status to play Ray Eddy, a discount store employee and mother of two who is overwhelmed by bills, a low-paying job, and a husband who keeps running off to gamble away their savings. Eddy finds herself overdue on everything, including the downpayment for her dream home, a double-wide trailer for her small lot in northern New York, near the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation on the U.S.-Canadian border.
When the opportunity arises Eddy begins partnering up with a Mohawk woman named Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), the two of whom smuggle illegal immigrants from Canada across the border to the U.S. via the frozen St. Lawrence River, pulling in $1,200 per trip. As expected, a "last run" is foiled by local police patrols, and Eddy shows us a truly audacious deed of humanity after an empathetic friendship arose on that frozen river.
Leo was nominated for an Academy Award for her lead role in Frozen River, but, like screenwriter Courtney Hunt (who also directed), lost to more well-known features (The Reader and Milk, respectively). Nonetheless, River won numerous other awards and accolades, all forecasting a future classic, a hidden gem of a film that refused to settle on conventional ideas, borrowing from real life and its shrouted little stories of compassion and understanding.
4/5 stars
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