Movie Review: Frozen River
I saw Doubt and Frozen River
I was wrong. It’s Frozen River that still haunts me.
Both movies deal with moral uncertainty. In Doubt, the question is—How strongly you can act, how much damage can you risk, when you don’t know the absolute truth?
The haunting difference in Frozen River is—How strongly can you condone or encourage behavior that is understandable but absolutely immoral?
In the first movie, I didn’t know who or what is right. It caused a lot of discomfort, but I didn’t have to act. I didn’t gain or lose by not making a decision. There’s even a bit of comfort on a weird congratulatory level with watching the movie and being able to be not sure.
In the other, I sympathized with and rooted for the characters right away. Thinking back, I don’t think I would change my mind, but I am certain that I’m wrong to wish them well.
Frozen River is the story of Ray, a mom struggling to keep her family together in the midst of deep poverty. Her gambling-addicted husband has stolen the family’s savings and run off. Now, she’s forced to keep her and her two sons going on a part-time job at the Yankee Dollar store.
In a very well-written series of events, she teams up with a young Mohawk woman, also a desperate single mom, to run illegal immigrants across the frozen river that separates Canada and the United States.
(minor plot spoilers ahead)
As you may expect, each subsequent run becomes more and more dangerous, and the stakes keep going up. And I continue to root for them—
- to count the money so they don’t get short changed
- to elude the authorities
- for the ice to hold
- for one more run
And the kicker is—Ray is doing all this for an unnecessary dream. Instead of their worn-down single trailer, she wants her family to live in a brand new double-wide.
Basic? Yes. Almost heartbreaking? Yes. But worth the risk of jail or death and orphaned children? No.
All this is not even to put food, of which there is none, on the table. There are so many other things she could do with this money. It doesn’t have to be sunk into a brand new trailer.
But the masterful work of the movie is that you understand where this woman’s obsession comes from. The stark, hard, frozen New York community depicted in the film is a character itself. Reflecting the lives of the people here, there isn’t one scene, one shot, one character moment that is extraneous and wasteful.
When I think about the movie, I automatically see the the harsh, barren landscape. I feel the cold and big emptiness of the space. The filmmakers really did an outstanding job.
The beginning shot of the main character is one of the most perfect I have ever seen. I was still getting settled at this point—getting cozy on the couch, opening my food, etc., but the beauty of that introductory character reveal told me volumes about her, her life, and what I was going to be watching for the next hour and a half.
Brilliant.
I’ve focused mainly on Ray in this write-up, but the supporting characters are all fully formed with great storylines of their own. We don’t spend an excess amount of time with them, and we don’t spend too little. Like I said—utility and economy. And for me personally, an unforgettable film.
The order of how I would vote:
Actress in a Leading Role
- Meryl Streep in Doubt
- Kate Winslet in The Reader
- Melissa Leo in Frozen River
- Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
- Angelina Jolie in Changeling
[...] Melissa Leo in Frozen River [...]
[...] Melissa Leo in Frozen River [...]