About.com Rating



An Indie With Unusual Locations and a Compelling Lead Actress

Melissa Leo has appeared in minor roles in many movies and TV shows, but her performance playing the lead in Frozen River (2008) earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In addition, the film's slightly offbeat script got an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for newcomer Courtney Hunt, who also directed. Furthermore, the movie won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Although Frozen River isn't downbeat, it is almost unrelentingly gritty. The movie is set on the US-Canada border in winter, and the landscapes are stark and snowy. All the important characters live in poverty in mobile homes or trailers, and the nicest building is an unattractive bingo parlor.

The story centers on Ray (Melissa Leo), the mother of two boys, and her involvement in smuggling illegal immigrants into the US from Canada by driving them across the frozen St. Lawrence River. She engages in this lucrative endeavor in an uneasy partnership with a surly young widow named Lila (Misty Upham), a Mohawk who lives on a reservation. When events spin out of control, both women must make some difficult choices.

The visual style of the film is realistic, and the acting is naturalistic. The story is never boring, but the pace is so fast that it sometimes lessens emotional impact. The plot is clever, but feels contrived, and the ending is exceedingly tidy. The viewer is quite conscious of being manipulated, but this is largely made up for by the interesting locations and strong performances.

DVD Audio Commentary Track

The only DVD bonus material of any consequence is a mediocre feature-length audio commentary by writer-director Courtney Hunt and producer Heather Rae. Showing little concern for what listeners might want to hear, the two women chat away.

Without explanation Hunt and Rae refer to "the short film," which was apparently a 15-minute proto-version used to obtain funding. They speak of recruiting actors from somewhere called Kahnawake, but listeners can't be expected to infer that they're talking about a Mohawk reserve in Quebec. (However, what is supposed to be Mohawk territory in the movie is evidently modeled on a different real-life place, which remains unidentified in either the film or the commentary.)

Between chitchat, there is some worthwhile information in the commentary. We eventually learn that the movie was shot in 24 days on a budget of under a million dollars. It also emerges that almost all filming was done on locations in and around Plattsburgh, New York. And the writer-director occasionally discusses interesting issues, such as how she and her strong-willed lead actress resolved a difference of opinion about how a particular scene should be played.

DVD Details

Below I have listed all the details for the Frozen River DVD.

Release Date: February 10, 2009
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Some Language
Widescreen (1.78:1), Color
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Writer-Director and Producer
English Subtitles for Audio Commentary
Theatrical Trailer