Review of Frozen River (2008) by Kenny D — 20 May 2009

Despite a solid, Academy Award nominated central performance by Melissa Leo I'm perplexed why the critic's community has fallen head over heels in love with this somber, darkly depressing "edgy" indie.

It starts off well enough, with a tense close-up on Leo's life-burdened face but it becomes an uninvolving, terribly slow social drama in which one of the main plot points - the troubled friendship between Leo's character and a Mohawk-woman - never feels real.

There's no tension, no drama and the ill-judged emotional confrontation between the mother and her son feels horribly forced. It could very well be one of those movies where "I just don't get it" and I do have to admit I dozed off more than once during this movie (never a good sign) but it just never pulled me in or had me even remotely interested in the fate of these characters.

"Thou Shalt Not Bore" is the first rule in the filmmaking-handbook and Frozen River not only bends it, but flat out breaks it. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...