First Hit: A stark film set in a stark environment and although some of the acting was excellent I wasn’t moved by the film.
Growing up in Southern California I was generally aware of the problem of people being smuggled across the border. In fact driving down the freeway near Oceanside, there are big yellow caution warning signs showing a family running across the highway.
The signs are to warn drivers to beware of people who’ve been smuggled across the border and are avoiding the highway checkpoint by crossing lanes of high speed freeway to the other side. However, it didn't occurred to me that smuggling people across the border was happening along our northern Canadian border as well.
Frozen River brings this to acute awareness as the story unfolds of a woman Ray Eddy (played by Melissa Leo) whose husband has just left her again with the money they’ve saved for a new double wide mobile home. Feeling helpless and at a loss and feeling burdened by the promises to her kids that a new home is on the way, she finds an extraordinary way to make some money.
While her youngest son is unaware of why the new home isn’t here yet, her older 15 year old son T.J. (Played by Charlie McDermott) has a more defeated view of the sad events of their life. Ray works hard at a retail outlet but never gets promoted.
Ray is always on the edge of being a victim and because of her need to get money to pay for the double wide, she gets entangled in a smuggling scheme with Lila Littlewolf (played by Misty Upham).
The acting by Leo and McDermott was outstanding and Upham’s work felt realistic. Although the film felt flat to me but I’m hard pressed to know what was missing from the film to have it be something more interesting and engaging.
Overall: The powerful acting by Leo and McDermott made this film watchable and engaging.