Frozen River Review
A compelling and original story fashioned from the fabric of social realism, Courtney Hunt's film is a penetrating character study with a heavyweight central performance.
Ray (Melissa Leo) is trying to keep it together, working as many hours as she can get at the local grocery store, trying to get ahead on the mortgage payments to get her kids out of a trailer and into something more permanent. She’s not getting much help in that regard from her husband, a gambling addict who – as the film begins – has taken off in for an unspecified destination.
Cast details
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Ray looks for him everywhere she can think of, then sees a woman driving his car and follows her back to her trailer. Lila Littlejohn (Misty Upham) is a Mohawk Indian who claims to have found the car abandoned, and decided to put it to good use. She knows someone who will give them $2000 for it, she says… Which is how the women find themselves going into an uneasy partnership in the people smuggling business.
Frozen River gets its name and a good part of its drama from the unusual setting. Ray lives on the edge of the Mohawk reservation that spans both sides of the Saint Lawrence River. On the Northern shore, the Mohawk live in Canada. To the south, they are in the United States. Over the deep winter months, the Saint Lawrence freezes over. In some places, the ice is so thick you can drive a car across it. Course, you do have to know what you’re doing – and keep an eye out for the thaw.
These slippery border crossings are fraught with tension, and Hunt builds up the stakes every time. But – for better or worse – she resists the urge to turn the movie into a straight thriller. Her interest is always on the two women and the economic straits that compel them to risk so much.
Frozen River: Misty Upham and Melissa Leo
If you don’t recognise Melissa Leo, the fortysomething actress playing Ray, then you must have missed the cutting edge cop series Homicide: Life on the Streets (1994-1997), in which she played Detective Kay Howard. Leo also had decent roles in 21 Grams and The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (2005), but for the most part she’s toiled in the trenches of TV and low budget film without hitting lucky.
Until now, that is. Leo is a good advertisement for steering clear of Botox and the knife. She has a careworn face, lined and creased but authentic and expressive in a way that – to take an obvious example – Nicole Kidman’s isn’t. In Frozen River, Ray is permanently frazzled, but Leo lets us understand the practical considerations that govern the character’s questionable choices, and the ethical convictions that still inform her actions.
The Grand Jury prize winner at Sundance 2008, and a double Oscar-nominee to boot (best actress, Melissa Leo; original screenplay Courtney Hunt), Frozen River was shot on the cheap on digital video, and – ice scenes apart – it doesn’t muster much in the way of visual interest. The writing also tends towards the obvious in parts, particularly in a less than convincing climax. But it still feels grounded in real lives and real problems, and that counts for a lot. Especially when you have a performance as unsentimental and gutsy as Leo’s at the heart of things.
Frozen River Reviews
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Critics' reviews
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Click here to read an interview with Courtney Hunt, the director of 'Frozen River'Like some weary, modern day Mildred... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful members' reviews (3)
View all -
88 out of 88 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Frozen River
Frozen River is one of those movies I really wish was better as a whole, because in it there is one outstanding thing. Melissa Leo has netted an Oscar nomination for her performance here, and it is entirely deserved, but rest of Courtney Hunt’s film is pretty unremarkable.
The story is of Ray (Leo) a mother of two whose husband has run away with the money for their new home, prompting her to get involved, along with a young Mohawk woman (Upham), in smuggling illegal immigrants across the frozen river separating Canada and the US so she can make the payment and get the new home for her kids.
The wintry landscapes in which the film is set afford Hunt some beautiful vistas for her small budget, and the grim realities of the day to day grind of working minimum wage also come home in her rather grimy visuals, but the director’s screenplay lets the side down. It’s a deeply predictable film, with the plot-o-matic 3000 clanking through the motions in both the women’s relationship (animosity, grudging respect, trust, friendship) and the plot concerning the smuggling (guess what happens when Leo says she has to do ‘One last run’). This plodding plotting makes Frozen River over familiar, and frequently quite dull.
What saves the film, and is, really, the only thing worth seeing it for is Melissa Leo’s tour de force performance. It’s not a big performance, there’s no grandstanding give me an oscar moment, instead Leo just sinks into this woman’s skin. She exhibits no vanity, wearing no make up, looking raddled and ragged and much older than her 50 years. There’s a sense of rapport with the actors playing her children, and it’s the scenes they share that are perhaps most revealing about Ray, as you can see the effort to which she’s going to keep her worries from them. Leo doesn’t signpost things, it’s a subtle and affecting piece of work, and it deserve some recognition come awards season.
Compared to Leo the rest of the cast seem stilted and often false. Misty Upham comes off best among the support, but next to Leo her performance feels like it is just that, someone playing a role. This throws the film as a whole out of whack, but Frozen River never stops being worth watching, mainly because Leo is on screen in just about every frame of the film. It’s just a shame that the whole picture can’t come up to the level of its finest part. -
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Boy this is SLOW
A car driving back & forward,back & forwardback & forward,back & forward in the snow. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Muddy puddle.
Whether you actually enjoy this film or not, I think has to be commended as a valiant effort by director Courtney Hunt. It's kind of like 'Fargo' but without the humour.
Barren and gloomy, we follow Ray (Melissa Leo) as she scrapes up change for her two kids' lunch money whilst dreaming of her brand new prefab, dream house that hubby has run off with the balance for. If she's not secretly blubbing away to herself in the baqthroom, then it's all false optimism and deluded visions of grandeur as, not unlike the Mickey Rourke character in The Wrestler, we are given a fly on the wall feeling of following her drab, quite desperate day to day existence.
Then by a rather fortunate (or not) twist of fate she finds herself mixed up in people smuggling and the chance to make a few bucks for what seems to be very little effort.
Of course though, things start to go wrong and we are left with a nail biter of low key magnitude.
It's dark, it's a bit slow and the story is not a complex one. However it avoids all the usual cliche's, dramatic soundtracks and sentimentality that this sort of film usually thrives on.
One finds oneself on the edge of ones seat and not quite knowing why. Drawn in by the matter of fact proportions of desperate people doing desperate things. Misty Upham's and Charlie McDermott's characters are both as beautifully understated as Leo's is intense.
The few, feel good moments of humour just about keep it balanced when it seems it could so easily slip slide into the all time depressive movie of the decade.
Intelligent and brave.
Recommended highly but make sure you're in the right mood.
Zoolander it isn't. -
Most recent members' reviews (2)
View all -
88 out of 88 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Frozen River
Frozen River is one of those movies I really wish was better as a whole, because in it there is one outstanding thing. Melissa Leo has netted an Oscar nomination for her performance here, and it is entirely deserved, but rest of Courtney Hunt’s film is pretty unremarkable.
The story is of Ray (Leo) a mother of two whose husband has run away with the money for their new home, prompting her to get involved, along with a young Mohawk woman (Upham), in smuggling illegal immigrants across the frozen river separating Canada and the US so she can make the payment and get the new home for her kids.
The wintry landscapes in which the film is set afford Hunt some beautiful vistas for her small budget, and the grim realities of the day to day grind of working minimum wage also come home in her rather grimy visuals, but the director’s screenplay lets the side down. It’s a deeply predictable film, with the plot-o-matic 3000 clanking through the motions in both the women’s relationship (animosity, grudging respect, trust, friendship) and the plot concerning the smuggling (guess what happens when Leo says she has to do ‘One last run’). This plodding plotting makes Frozen River over familiar, and frequently quite dull.
What saves the film, and is, really, the only thing worth seeing it for is Melissa Leo’s tour de force performance. It’s not a big performance, there’s no grandstanding give me an oscar moment, instead Leo just sinks into this woman’s skin. She exhibits no vanity, wearing no make up, looking raddled and ragged and much older than her 50 years. There’s a sense of rapport with the actors playing her children, and it’s the scenes they share that are perhaps most revealing about Ray, as you can see the effort to which she’s going to keep her worries from them. Leo doesn’t signpost things, it’s a subtle and affecting piece of work, and it deserve some recognition come awards season.
Compared to Leo the rest of the cast seem stilted and often false. Misty Upham comes off best among the support, but next to Leo her performance feels like it is just that, someone playing a role. This throws the film as a whole out of whack, but Frozen River never stops being worth watching, mainly because Leo is on screen in just about every frame of the film. It’s just a shame that the whole picture can’t come up to the level of its finest part. -
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
DO NOT BOTHER
Slow....boring and what a waste of time
-
88 out of 88 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Frozen River
Frozen River is one of those movies I really wish was better as a whole, because in it there is one outstanding thing. Melissa Leo has netted an Oscar nomination for her performance here, and it is entirely deserved, but rest of Courtney Hunt’s film is pretty unremarkable.
The story is of Ray (Leo) a mother of two whose husband has run away with the money for their new home, prompting her to get involved, along with a young Mohawk woman (Upham), in smuggling illegal immigrants across the frozen river separating Canada and the US so she can make the payment and get the new home for her kids.
The wintry landscapes in which the film is set afford Hunt some beautiful vistas for her small budget, and the grim realities of the day to day grind of working minimum wage also come home in her rather grimy visuals, but the director’s screenplay lets the side down. It’s a deeply predictable film, with the plot-o-matic 3000 clanking through the motions in both the women’s relationship (animosity, grudging respect, trust, friendship) and the plot concerning the smuggling (guess what happens when Leo says she has to do ‘One last run’). This plodding plotting makes Frozen River over familiar, and frequently quite dull.
What saves the film, and is, really, the only thing worth seeing it for is Melissa Leo’s tour de force performance. It’s not a big performance, there’s no grandstanding give me an oscar moment, instead Leo just sinks into this woman’s skin. She exhibits no vanity, wearing no make up, looking raddled and ragged and much older than her 50 years. There’s a sense of rapport with the actors playing her children, and it’s the scenes they share that are perhaps most revealing about Ray, as you can see the effort to which she’s going to keep her worries from them. Leo doesn’t signpost things, it’s a subtle and affecting piece of work, and it deserve some recognition come awards season.
Compared to Leo the rest of the cast seem stilted and often false. Misty Upham comes off best among the support, but next to Leo her performance feels like it is just that, someone playing a role. This throws the film as a whole out of whack, but Frozen River never stops being worth watching, mainly because Leo is on screen in just about every frame of the film. It’s just a shame that the whole picture can’t come up to the level of its finest part. -
5 out of 7 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Boy this is SLOW
A car driving back & forward,back & forwardback & forward,back & forward in the snow. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...
-
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Muddy puddle.
Whether you actually enjoy this film or not, I think has to be commended as a valiant effort by director Courtney Hunt. It's kind of like 'Fargo' but without the humour.
Barren and gloomy, we follow Ray (Melissa Leo) as she scrapes up change for her two kids' lunch money whilst dreaming of her brand new prefab, dream house that hubby has run off with the balance for. If she's not secretly blubbing away to herself in the baqthroom, then it's all false optimism and deluded visions of grandeur as, not unlike the Mickey Rourke character in The Wrestler, we are given a fly on the wall feeling of following her drab, quite desperate day to day existence.
Then by a rather fortunate (or not) twist of fate she finds herself mixed up in people smuggling and the chance to make a few bucks for what seems to be very little effort.
Of course though, things start to go wrong and we are left with a nail biter of low key magnitude.
It's dark, it's a bit slow and the story is not a complex one. However it avoids all the usual cliche's, dramatic soundtracks and sentimentality that this sort of film usually thrives on.
One finds oneself on the edge of ones seat and not quite knowing why. Drawn in by the matter of fact proportions of desperate people doing desperate things. Misty Upham's and Charlie McDermott's characters are both as beautifully understated as Leo's is intense.
The few, feel good moments of humour just about keep it balanced when it seems it could so easily slip slide into the all time depressive movie of the decade.
Intelligent and brave.
Recommended highly but make sure you're in the right mood.
Zoolander it isn't. -
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
DO NOT BOTHER
Slow....boring and what a waste of time
-
1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Good story, well told
This is a downbeat tale, well written & wel acted. Melissa Leo is excellent as the abandoned wife, left almost destitute by a gambling husband who takes desperate measures to get her kids a new trailer home & the prospect of a better life than she's had. Although some of the plotting is predictable it doesn't detract from the quality of the story or your sympathy for the characters plight. The American dream definitely hasn't come true for these people but here they are helping to smuggle in immigrants to a country that's done them no favours. Well worth a view.
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[Highly rated reviewer]
a little gem
A very low budget movie made really fast with whatever actors they could more or less find and they still came up with an involving drama with tense moments such as this. You can nitpick about some of the elements of the story but given the above limitations there was always going to be some aspect of compromise involved. The core of the movie is Ray played by Melissa Leo who is superb and makes no attempt to hide the blemishes of the character she plays, if the role had been played just as well by a 'name actress' playing unglamourous then they would have won the oscar ahead of Kate Winslets acting by numbers. Lets hope to see more from the director without her letting herself getting caught up with Hollywood flabbiness.
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[Highly rated reviewer]
Stunning
A perfect little film.
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fab
i wasn't sure bout this wen it 1st started but in the end i thought it was a really feel gud film so so sad bout struggling.watch it.
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Interestingly unique
A slow moving interesting film, but didn't make the earth move for me
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Unexpected Gem
This film has a great, riveting and believable story. Our interest was held throughout the film. It has no gimmicks Very atmospheric. It covers a slice of life one does not normally see. The acting is superb as is the direction. I would want to see this director's next film. Worth looking at the extras because this is not the usual Hollywood love -in.
Critics' reviews
-
Click here to read an interview with Courtney Hunt, the director of 'Frozen River'Like some weary, modern day Mildred... read more on Time Out