105 out of 106 people found the following review helpful:

Frozen River

SAI81 from from Tonbridge, 3rd February, 2009

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.

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12 out of 16 people found the following review helpful:

Boy this is SLOW

richard from , 28th October, 2009

A car driving back & forward,back & forwardback & forward,back & forward in the snow. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...

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8 out of 8 people found the following review helpful:

Muddy puddle.

SeekerSolace from , 21st November, 2009

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.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review helpful:

DO NOT BOTHER

Diamond Dog from Pompey, 7th November, 2009

Slow....boring and what a waste of time

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A lost opportunity

Stefan Herber from Lincs UK, 19th March, 2010

There is one superb shot in this film. This shows a wall to wall flat screen TV occupying most of the sitting room of a family living in such squalor that dinner for two nights running consists of popcorn & cold drinks. For the rest- very few mainstream US films tend to consider the situation of the so called 'trailer trash' & for a while I hoped this might be a serious examination of them & their life styles. Instead it turns into an underwritten 'Thelma & Louise' rip off with a totally out of character ending. The cast do what they can with their characters which if more fleshed out might have even engendered some sympathy but this finally struck me as best described as above- a lost opportunity.

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A mother's love...

hardpressedmother from , 18th March, 2010

The film, though dark and humourless and not very pretty, is essentially about how far women will go to protect and nurture their children. Set near the Canadian border in and around the Mohawk reservation it shows the nervous mix of white trailer folk and Indian reservation occupants. The reservation police force contrasted with the American state trooper style of policing is revealed sympathetically from both sides crossed with tales of desperate, illegal immigrant people being smuggled in boots of cars by very poor and almost equally desperate inhabitants of the area. Depressing yes but the strength and determination of the main character, a mother whose hopeless gambling-addicted husband has left her financially in a very dire place, is depicted calmly and realistically by Leo. The bottom line for the character is that her children are warm and fed and educated and that is the story. A bit of a slow start but you see real friendships and relationships develop and the story is gripping enough in parts to lead you to the finally moving and satisfying ending.

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Pretty poor and bland

lordflashheart from , 15th March, 2010

Sort of thing they show on the true movie channel's.Story is very predictable. Only watched it as Id payed for it.

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Interesting and realistic

Suza from , 8th March, 2010

I found this film a really interesting portrayal of a mum in a trailer park who's husband runs off with her money, leaving her to go to lengths to support her family by transporting illegal immigrants over the border. No signs of hollywood in this stark portrayal of the results of poverty and desperation.

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