From the outside Frozen River must have been an intensely difficult film to sell to any producer. In a nutshell you have a trailer park mom in desperate need for money. She gets mixed up in the smuggling of illegal immigrants across the US-Canadian border after a young Mohawk girl steals the car her estranged husband abandoned before taking their family savings on a gambling binge. Yeah, you read that right and as strange as it sounds it actually works. There is a sense of reality to that story. Life is never made up of what we expect to happen and when trapped in a corner any human being will do whatever needs to be done to survive. Too bad Frozen River doesn’t have the guts to finish what it started. It may have ended on a more depressing note, but it would have also made for one hell of a film.
Frozen River opens with a close-up shot of Melissa Leo, the mother I referenced in the opening paragraph. It’s a handheld shot and we simply watch as Leo emotes depression without a word, you can almost feel her stomach churning and we don’t even know a thing about her character yet. It’s no surprise Leo is one of the early names being tossed around with Best Actress Oscar buzz. The likelihood of her getting a nomination is slim by all margins, but that opening scene alone is enough to prove she is an actress with talent. One thing is for certain, first-time writer/director Courtney Hunt proves if you cast the right actors in your film all you need is a camera because the talent you hired will do the rest.
As for the film itself, it really can’t sustain its momentum. It takes the easy way out too many times and as risky as it actually gets, every moment it has a chance to continue down that road it consistently pulls a u-turn and never has the balls to confront the true moments of decision with any sense of reality. Independent films are supposed to be the films that show us the actual side of human nature, if I wanted to see people that go down a dark road only to find redemption in the end I would watch any number of Hollywood dramas released every month. Hunt created a character in Frozen River we could connect with and understand even if what she is doing is not acceptable.
Criticisms aside, this film is a good sign for Hunt. As a first film this is an excellent example showing she knows how to cast actors she can trust in front of the camera with heavy moments and it also shows she has the capability of writing a story with some guts. She just needs to learn to actually finish what she started and I think she may find it working to her benefit. After all, what is the use in making an independent film if you are going to take the easy way out every time? I am not saying it has to be dark and depressing, but at least follow the story’s momentum and don’t deviate just to satisfy a happy ending.
C+
