Review of Frozen River (2008) by Di P — 02 Jul 2009

God bless independent films, because the big studios just don't put out little gems like this one. Watching "Frozen River" isn't even like watching a movie, because what you are seeing is reality, and the acting is done so naturally and honestly that it's more like someone just took a camera and filmed what was going on in the real world.

Melissa Leo, who was nominated for a best actress Oscar for this film, plays a single mom who lives in a trailer near a Mohawk reserve on the American side of the border. Her native husband took off with the down-payment for a new trailer, leaving her and her two sons to fend for themselves. Stuck in a crappy, dead-end job, she is barely able to put food on the table, let alone buy her sons anything for Christmas. When a young native girl tries to steal her car, the two women find their lives entwined. This young mother is trying to get her infant son back from her mother-in-law, and in desperation for money, has resorted to smuggling people across the US/Canadian border across the frozen river that divides the two countries and runs through the middle of the reservation. Leo soon becomes involved in the scheme herself, through her own desperation for a better life, and to say more about what happens afterwards would ruin the film for those of you who would like to see it.

Excellently done. I realize that many people go to the movies to escape, not to see such gritty realism of what amounts to day-to-day life for some people, but this film is well worth seeing, and Leo definitely deserved her Oscar nomination.