Review #13 – Frozen River

An appropriate choice for a snowy, windy night, Frozen River played to a smallish – but appreciative – audience on Saturday. This film represents the qualities that American independent productions could, but often don't, offer; so much of US filmmaking is focussed on box-office splash that the simple act of telling a small story well gets lost... not here in Courtney Hunt's debut feature, though. That this film has been nominated for and has won a number of prestigious prizes, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, is probably sufficient recommendation... you could stop reading now and will have received the message I am trying to deliver.

I must confess to really, really liking Melissa Leo, who plays the central figure, Ray Eddy, in this piece. Ever since her turn as Detective Sergeant Kay Howard in Homicide: Life on the Streets, I've wondered why she of the leonine mane of hair and whiskey and cigarettes voice doesn't get more work... Frozen River merely reinforces the strength of this question. That, as of this post, she is in 10 productions either finished or currently in production, means others have asked this question and we will, thankfully, be seeing a lot more of her soon. The other principal in Frozen River, Misty Upham, as Lila Littlejohn [a Robin Hood reference, perhaps?], does not seem to have been noticed in the same light, but she should be... it would be sad if this talented actor is relegated to roles calling for a First-Nations woman, rather than to roles requiring a strong woman... of any race or creed. Why, when no race is indicated, is white the norm? This is most apparent when this notion is breached, as in Sandra Oh's portrayal of Carol French in Wilby Wonderful [a dandy Canadian production], a part that I am sure wasn't specifically written for a Korean woman in Daniel McIvor's script... but I digress [as always]. This being said, Misty Upham's portrayal did bring to mind another, Elaine Miles as Marilyn Whirlwind in Northern Exposure... blending similar enigmatic qualities and inner strength [albeit to less comedic end in the production under discussion].

To the movie... the characters in Frozen River lead, in Thoreau's terms, "lives of quiet desperation", perched as they are on the margins of society. That Ray's biggest dream is to live in a new double-wide mobile home, sounding like some sort of classist punchline, and that her good-for-nothing and gambling addicted husband has fled for parts unknown with the downpayment [unwisely hidden in the glovebox of her car] serves to underline just how close to the wire her life is functioning. She is, seemingly, always a couple of thousand away from a notion of success, and one minor disaster away from despair... this is reinforced by her son's unfortunate use of a blowtorch to thaw a frozen pipe... but I don't want to give anything away. Ray works part-time at the Yankee One Dollar store, and doesn't seem to be getting ahead in any way. She meets Lila, and they form an uneasy detente, smuggling illegal aliens across the nearby US-Canadian border, through the Mohawk reservation.

Both of these women live on the boundaries: Ray has qualities that give her advantages, especially being white, but she lives a hand-to-mouth existence; Lila has connection to community that Ray doesn't have, but she lives in an unserviced travel trailer in the woods. The space they inhabit is characterized by a moral ambiguity which underlines that hard-and-fast ethics are the purview of the comfortable. Even though Lila gives Ray the comfort of saying that the smuggling is legal because it takes place on the reserve, and that the Mohawk don't recognize the border between the nations, both women know that what they are doing is fundamentally wrong, but also oddly necessary. And also very dangerous... the folks they are dealing with are not pleasant, and the manner of the border crossing, on the frozen St. Lawrence River in an ill-equipped car whose main attraction is that it has a remote-release trunk, does not bode well of their long-term survival.

This film maintains the drama without falling for the temptation of cliché; the viewer cares what happens, while being astounded at what happens. There is good acting here, in the principals, and in the secondary characters, particularly Charlie McDermott and James Reilly as Ray's children. Some of the other players are amateurish, but this lends a degree of verisimilitude to the production... and is easily forgiven in the over-all strength of the effort.

A number of reviewers laud Frozen River's style as something missing from the American independent production scene; this is too bad for our neighbours to the South, as, for a Canadian audience, this film seems very familiar. So, if you watch this film and like what you see, check out some Canadian films, which, by virtue of small budgets, tend toward strong characters and plot at the expense of flash. Sometimes this seems small-time, but it is mainly oddly refreshing.