Frozen River |  | Director: Courtney Hunt
Actors: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Michael O'Keefe, Mark Boone Junior
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
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Rating:  70 reviews
Sales Rank: 8322
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Unknown), French (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Running Time: 97 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.7
MPN: COLD27180D
UPC: 043396271807
EAN: 0043396271807
ASIN: B001KEHAG2
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: February 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
TWO DESTITUTE SINGLE MOTHERS FORM AN UNEASY PARTNERSHIP TRANSPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ACROSS THE U.S./CANADIANBORDER. WHEN CIRCUMSTANCES SPIRAL ALARMINGLY OUT OF CONTROL,THEY MAKE LIFE OR DEATH DECISIONS BASE ON THEIR FRIENDSHIP &LOVE FOR THEIR CHILDREN. MELISSA LEO IS NOMINATED FOR AN OSCAR.
When her husband runs off with the payment for their new home, Ray (Melissa Leo, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) turns to crime to keep herself and her two sons afloat. A chance encounter with Lila (Misty Upham, Edge of America), an equally desperate young Mohawk woman, leads Ray to smuggling illegal immigrants by driving across the frozen Hudson River onto tribal land. But with every trip, things go wrong in small and not-so-small ways, until Ray finds herself pushed into a more desperate corner than ever before. Leo delivers a gritty, restrained, but richly compelling performance; her raw face, beautiful but worn down by life, radiates a weary defiance. Frozen River has scenes as tense as any Hollywood thriller, but so grounded in the fully developed characters of these two women that the taut suspense grips the full spectrum of your emotions. This is an impressive debut by writer/director Courtney Hunt, featuring excellent supporting performances by Charlie McDermott (The Ten) as Ray's unhappy oldest son and Michael O'Keefe (The Great Santini) as a suspicious state trooper. --Bret Fetzer
Stills from Frozen River (click for larger image)
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 70
 Crossing the Borderline: Honest Look at Desperation and Hardships March 30, 2010
Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan)
"Frozen River," Courtney Hunt's feature debut, is not what you call entertaining. It is a realistic look at desperation and hardships. Veteran actress Melissa Leo plays Ray Eddy, a working mother facing financial difficulties. Though the film deals with such topics as border smuggling, "Frozen River" works as a grim drama with credible portraits of two women in the most desperate situation of their lives.
The story is set in northernmost New York State, near the St. Lawrence River. It's before Christmas Eve and Ray Eddy is in big trouble. Her husband has disappeared with a car and money - the money to buy a new house. Ray finds the car at a bingo hall, but the driver is not the missing husband, but a woman named Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), who says she found the car at the bus stop.
Lila has been engaged in smuggling across the frozen river. Ray has a car and she needs money. You know what happens next. As a crime drama the story of "Frozen River" is slightly contrived and most supporting characters including Ray's two children are conventional at best. Moreover, its tone gets a little softer and less edgy in the second half, though the portraits of two women Ray and Lila remain convincing.
The well-acted drama benefits greatly from the two leads, especially Melissa Leo, who was deservedly Oscar nominated for the role. The film is worth seeing for her great acting alone. In spite of some of the plot contrivances, "Frozen River" is a well-made indie film, a film that is not about crime, but about these unlikely partners in crime, and some unexpected changes that happen to their life, described with compassion.
 stunningly true to life February 6, 2010
cat-bear (Upstate NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I can't imagine the kind of people who gave this negative reviews. I live in upstate New York, and from the opening moments of the film I "knew" the places and the people, and understood their hard choices. Great direction & performances, couldn't have been done better with a big budget.
what a woman goes through for a house for her children? January 17, 2010
R. Bagula (Lakeside, Ca United States)
We have a broken marriage, a double wide pre-fab home and an Indian smuggler
who needs a car badly.
Nothing really goes right for this woman after her husband leaves.
The irony seems to be that her husband is a fellow with a gambling addiction that takes him onto
the Mohawk reservation. Where his car becomes the meeting of the young Mohawk woman
and the mother trying to get that better home for her children.
They become a smuggling "team": the connections are the Mohawk's the car is the
"white" lady. After a duffle bag with a child is left behind
and the child appears dead, but comes back to life,
a bond forms between the two women.
This movie is a strange story that grips you.
The underclass December 29, 2009
Douglas King (Cincinnati, OH United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hollywood rarely offers honest depictions of poor or working class America. In this way, "Frozen River" is a pioneer film.
In the first shot of the film, the audience is introduced to Ray, the main character (played with brave, ferocious realism by Melissa Leo) as she sits outside her trailer in the cold, her raw, middle-aged face shedding bitter tears. Ray's irresponsible husband has taken off with the money they had saved to put a down payment on their new home, leaving her alone, broke, and responsible for her two children.
Ray is not a damsel in distress type. She puts on a brave face for her children, her angry teenage son and cherubic five year old, and goes out in search of her husband. By chance, she comes across a young Mohawk woman and falls into a lucrative, yet dangerous, position as an immigrant smuggler.
And so it begins. I doubt there is anyone in the audience who can blame Ray for her actions. She's desperate, alone, has children to provide for, and only a menial job working in a dollar store to provide an income. All she wants is a tiny little portion of the American Dream - a decent home for her kids. She's not lazy or stupid, she's just a normal woman trying to survive and take care of her family. So it's heartbreaking to watch her involvement in crime bring more and more anguish and trouble into her already bleak life.
As a suspenseful drama, "Frozen River" is interesting and entertaining. And as a portrait of the American underclass, it's unfliching.
Gritty, cutting-edge crime drama December 28, 2009
S. Spears (Florence, MA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I recently saw Frozen River, at a local theater. This indie film revolves around two impoverished single mothers; one white, and the other a member of the Mohawk Native American tribe. The setting of the film takes place in the harsh, bleak climate of upstate NY, near the Canadian border during wintertime.
Melissa Leo is brilliant as the haggard, world-weary single mother, Ray. Ray's gambling-addict husband, has left her and their 2 sons in the lurch. Right before Christmas, he splits with the savings that Ray had planned to use as payment, for a better trailer home than the one her family has been residing in.
Ray tries in vain to support herself and her children, on income from a part-time retail job. She doesn't get the promotion to Manager, that she had expected at her job. As a result, Ray and her family are in dire economic straits; they subsist on popcorn and powdered juice, are on the verge of having their TV repossessed by a rent-to-own store, and face a Christmas without presents. Worst of all, the coveted 'double-wide' trailer home that Ray has long dreamed of purchasing, is an impossibility, without the savings that her husband ran off with.
In desperation, Ray goes looking for her husband in a gambling Casino, located in Mohawk tribal territory. One of the young Native American women of the tribe, Lila (played with a dry, dour efficiency by Misty Upham) steals the car that Ray's husband had abandoned, in the Casino parking-lot. Ray sees this, and pursues Lila to her tiny trailer home, located in a remote woodsy area.
Lila is also a single mom whose husband had died, and left her with a 1-year-old son to raise alone. Lila doesn't want to give Ray the car back, and doesn't respond to threats that Ray will turn Lila in to the local cops. According to Lila, white man's law is void in Mohawk territory. After a brief scuffle with Lila, Ray pulls a pistol, and shoots a hole in Lila's trailer. Frightened by this, Lila makes Ray an offer; if she lets Lila keep the car, then Ray can join Lila in her lucrative immigrant smuggling operation. Ray reluctantly agrees.
This film offers-up lots of stark, yet gorgeous, moody scenery. It dovetails well, with the gripping suspense of the smuggling-runs made by Ray and Lila. They must always keep one step ahead of the local State Troopers, hope that the sleazy smuggling kingpins pay them what they are owed, and complete their smuggling-runs without the frozen river caving in.
The basic premise of the film is grim, but highlights the lengths that two desperate single mothers could be driven to, in order to support their families. We need more films that address the serious plight of the working-poor, in American today. Especially films about poor single mothers, and the acute economic hardships that many of them face in today's economy.
The main problem with Frozen River, is that there are some implausible plot details, throughout the film. The producers obviously wanted to make a film with lots of emotional impact, and depth. They succeeded, but also should have made sure that they smoothed-out the rough edges in the storyline. Overall though, I would recommend Frozen River. The gorgeous cinematography, and especially the strong performances by the two lead actresses, make this film worth watching.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 70
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