Perfectly adorable

From my favorite movies..

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

On the border between NY and Quebec near the Mohawk reservation, Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is a clerk at the discount store. Her gambling husband had taken off with the money for their mobile home. She's struggling to raise her kids Troy (Charlie McDermott) and Ricky. She finds Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham) driving her husband's car. Lila had found the car abandoned at the bus station. Lila gets Ray into illegal human smuggling from Canada to America. They fight at first but a desperate Ray needs the money more.The desperation in these two lives are palpable. Melissa Leo is amazing. Her character is not over-written. She's not good or evil. She's just real. The cold desolate landscape fits perfectly with their desolate lives. It's impressive work from new filmmaker Courtney Hunt.

This one kinda set a trend much, much before 'Winter's bone' did, and that is taking nothing away from Jen Law or John Hawkes in that one. Its just that this one kinda brought Melissa Leo back (for me at least), and she has been such a force to reckon with after this one, with nary a bad performance out of her. Misty Upham, on the other hand, hasn't had much mainstream support until 'August: Osage County' came along and brought her back into pop culture.Issue based movies are kinda difficult to make without their turning out preachy. This is kinda maddening, esp when the makers want their audiences to Feel, yet need to step back and play it like a surgeon does so each member of the audience gets to pick a side, and the (pretentious) critic also observes that the said makers are being fair/impartial. Very, very difficult to pull off without losing a section of the audience.This one walks that tightrope, and you come out feeling for each character, and their tales, their choices, albeit limited in nature, while also appreciating the reality of the situation they live in, while staying concerned about how this reality, and how what each person does, affects society (or communities) as a whole. If one were to try and learn something from these tales unfolding, it would be simply to do that from the perspective of rehabilitating those who have gone astray, though that might sound simple and cliché-ed.Having said all that, this is a dark tale indeed, featuring some fine locations, photography, soundtrack (appropriately minimalistic) while painting the grim portrait that it does. Once again, not for everyone, but deserves to be seen to open the window on that which we are quick to ignore/pretend-doesn't-exist.

Frozen River caused quite the stir when it was realised four years back. After lots of festival attention, it earned two Academy Awards nominations. The first was for writer-director Courtney Hunt's original screenplay, and the second was a best actress nod for Melissa Leo. Finally catching up with this film, as the first in my "SHITTY Christmas!" series, I'm firstly left bemused as to why the Academy were so impressed with the clunky script, and secondly, angry that Leo's staggering performance didn't get the gong it deserved.Set on the snowbound American side of the New York/Quebec border, Leo plays the fatigued shop assistant Ray, with a ballsy, pugnacious streak. That ruthless attitude proves useful when her gambling addict husband takes off with the money the pair had been saving for a new static caravan home. Leaving crumbs for her and their two kids the week before Christmas, Ray must find a steadfast way to quash the family debt, settle the final payment on the new house, and have enough money to plant gifts underneath the tree.But luck strikes in the strangest of places. Whilst she's out wielding a gun and hunting for her husband, Ray bumps into the stoical Lila (Misty Upham), a young woman from a neighbouring Mohawk reservation. She's desperate for money too, needing enough to start up a clean life with her baby boy son, currently being sheltered by her mother-in-law (similarly to Ray, her husband bailed too). Lila's figured out how to make extra cash by ferrying illegal immigrants across the border via the connected frozen river – but she needs a 'trustworthy-looking' white woman to carry out the scheme.From the offset, it's clear that Ray & Lila's relationship is strictly professional. They argue, point guns, and exchange flippant racial abuse at each other. But they have one thing in common, a desperation to do what's right for their respective families, and they're willing to break the law, risk prison and even death to see that happen.An alleged 14 years in the making, director-writer Courtney Hunt's debut feature is perhaps a little belaboured. What could have been a very tight, singular character study, ends up being diluted and drowned by the ancillary characters and the extraneous plot depths they bring. Misty Upham seems to be on the brink of solid, stoney-faced characterisation but, like the rest of the cast, she is also upstaged by Leo. It's a huge problem in this little, $1million budget movie. Whenever Melissa Leo isn't in the frame, Frozen River is too dour to be entertaining, and everything ends up grinding to a halt.Fortunately enough, Hunt is aware that Leo really is the star of the movie, giving her the respect, creative license and screen time she deserves to pull off one astonishing breakthrough performance. In any other actor's hands, it would have been a melodramatic take on a woman on the brink of depression and despair. But, in something closely resembling Debra Granik's superior movie Winter's Bone, Leo turns Frozen River into an affecting, frosty depiction of female empowerment.Read more reviews here: www.366movies.com

"Frozen River" is an example of what great indie film making is all about.Instead of special effects and outrageous plot twists, we are shown real people caught up in some of the significant issues of life.First let me say that the acting by Melissa Leo, and especially Misty Upham is superb. Both characters grow in stature as the film progresses; what seem to be clichés at the start become powerful archetypes. The direction and cinematography cannot be faulted anywhere. Just well done all the way, without drawing special attention to itself. They let the story take preeminence. "Frozen River" will challenge your way of seeing cultures, borders, and family. It is the type of movie that stays with you. Don't miss it.