Frozen River
Set in a desolate border town where hope would seem to be a fleeting thing, Frozen River is a profoundly moving and unexpectedly optimistic story of human hardship and survival. Writer-director Courtney Hunt's touching tale unfolds with the rhythm of real life, recognizing that good and bad things exist in harmony with each other and that not every mistake ends in tragedy.
Saddled with financial distress when her gambling addict husband runs off with the money needed to pay for a new home, loving mother Ray (flawlessly portrayed by Melissa Leo) is forced to pinch every penny to keep her family afloat. When the opportunity to make big money smuggling people across the frozen St. Lawrence River arises, she reluctantly accepts out of necessity. Ray understands the legal issues conjured by such an endeavour, but she has been so harshly pushed into a corner that she feels the smuggling plan is her only hope. She first learns of the smuggling operation from a Mohawk woman named Lila, who lives on a nearby Native Reservation. While at first they dislike each other, Ray and Lila nevertheless team up to make the smuggling plan a reality. Ray provides the transportation, while Lila provides the human contacts necessary to finding those in need of smuggling.
Hunt's story is gripping from the start and never lets go, primarily due to the gravitational pull of its characters. Each of them is so perfectly realized on page and screen that they convincingly become the driving force of the narrative. Hunt clearly loves the people that she has helped create, but she also understands the importance of allowing them to grow in the hands of the actors. The result is a story propelled forward by the decisions and actions of its characters, as opposed to a story that uses the plot to push the characters in the required directions. There are genuine surprises nestled in the frozen landscape of the narrative and it is the manner in which Hunt reveals those surprises that generates such a powerful emotional impact.
By keeping the story lean and intimate, Hunt has unflinchingly stripped the human experience down to its raw base, exposing the kindness and gentle resilience of the human spirit. Finding a balance between hope and despair is a grand challenge in the realm of fiction, because attempting to navigate such recognizable territory invites the possibility of a sentimental takeover. It is all too easy to surrender to the simplicity of an absolute. Many stories stumble because they are forced in the direction of good or bad in a fashion that negates any need to juggle the ups and the downs. Real life is in a constant state of ebb and flow, infinitely acknowledging an entanglement of the positive and the negative. Great, relatable fiction often finds a way to juggle the happy and the sad, revelling in the possibilities of a marriage between the two. With Frozen River, Courtney Hunt has beautifully captured the sense of life's triumphs and tragedies moving hand in hand together.
The courage and complexity of her story is given meaning by the intensely engaging characters that she has handed to her cast. In addition to Leo's solid work, relative newcomer Charlie McDermott offers up a brilliantly nuanced performance as Ray's older son TJ, a typical teenager now reeling from the impact of his father's disappearance. In the hands of a less capable actor, TJ would be another angry kid with a bad attitude and no redeeming qualities. But McDermott has brought to life a young man in transition, frustrated and confused, but always honestly human. The scenes that he shares with Melissa Leo are among the best in the movie.
The ability of a story to surprise every step of the way is a rarity, making a movie like Frozen River such a wonderful gem. Courtney Hunt has created a world that is both alien and familiar, pulling us closer in its embrace, allowing our connection to the characters to move and reward us. It is her inspired gifts as a filmmaker and her steadfast faith in her own abilities that make this story come to life. By stripping her story down to its bare roots, she has crafted a portrait of the human experience that is as emotionally truthful as it is entirely original. In offering such a beautiful story, she reminds us that sometimes it takes a frozen world to melt our hearts.
