David O'ConnellFrozen River
March 3rd 2009 02:46
The Best Actress Oscar nomination for Melissa Leo is bound to draw a larger audience to this fiercely independent drama, written and directed by newcomer Courtney Hunt. Her setting is an unusual one, portraying the wide open wasteland that straddles the border between upper New York state and Canada.
Leo’s Ray is many an indie filmmaker’s archetypal maternal reference point: caught in the rut of a menial, dead-end job, now engaged in a struggle to raise her two boys, aged 15 and 5, since her degenerate, gambling-addict husband abandoned her, leaving no trace of his future whereabouts in his vacated car. A window of opportunity is opened for Ray however when she tracks the new “owner” of the car down, a young Mohawk Indian woman, Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), who has problems of her own and just happens to be involved in smuggling illegal aliens over the untended border.
The St. Lawrence River, over which Ray and Lila must drive to transport them serves as both the film’s title and an effective metaphor for the dividing line between diverse cultures, it’s gradual thawing acting as a countdown of the time remaining until judgement upon Ray’s fate is made, for better or worse.
There’s a low-key, slow-burn intensity to Hunt’s film that gives it a semblance of dramatic impetus but her attempts at creating poignancy are occasionally clumsy and ineffective, trying to anchor smaller moments with the weight of a mostly non-existent deeper meaning.
Certainly Leo’s performance is the film’s defining force and major reason for seeing it. Best known for her role in the early years on the great Baltimore-set drama Homicide: Life on the Streets, she pours everything of herself into this raw and jagged portrayal of a mother staring off the deep end of despair, turning to desperate measures to escape the bonds of her impoverished existence. But a certain level of depth of characterisation is missing and though not unlikable, neither Ray nor her plight fills our hearts with any profound empathy.
The sense of impending danger as she thrusts herself deeper into a commitment to illegality never really develops much momentum either. Hunt’s steadfast determination to create a meaningful central character, but leaving us with only peripheral understanding of those around her, is perhaps the film’s most glaring weakness, though both Upham and Charlie McDermott as eldest son T.J. do well with their limited material.
On the other hand, the unusual setting with its ambiguous boundaries between tribal land and anonymous, chilly terrain is a distinct advantage. The story too, dealing with events rarely portrayed, has enough originality to overcome some of the film’s more obvious deficiencies - many of which are exacerbated by the limited budget, and the digital video photography (whether a creative choice or a limitation imposed by the lack of finances).
Then there’s the unstartling style Hunt adopts in her direction. She uses a fairly formal, simplistic technique, which although not without a gritty, low-budget authenticity, leaves a slightly underwhelming impression overall.
Despite some minor reservations, Frozen River does deserves the attention it's received, especially for Melissa Leo’s brave performance as Ray, but its modesty and lack of technical creativity are bound to confine it to the margins of film history, as another small but worthy project that flies under most people's radar. Without the Oscar-nomination this film may have completely disappeared without a trace but it’s certainly good enough to earn the wider audience it’s now bound to attract.
Leo’s Ray is many an indie filmmaker’s archetypal maternal reference point: caught in the rut of a menial, dead-end job, now engaged in a struggle to raise her two boys, aged 15 and 5, since her degenerate, gambling-addict husband abandoned her, leaving no trace of his future whereabouts in his vacated car. A window of opportunity is opened for Ray however when she tracks the new “owner” of the car down, a young Mohawk Indian woman, Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), who has problems of her own and just happens to be involved in smuggling illegal aliens over the untended border.
The St. Lawrence River, over which Ray and Lila must drive to transport them serves as both the film’s title and an effective metaphor for the dividing line between diverse cultures, it’s gradual thawing acting as a countdown of the time remaining until judgement upon Ray’s fate is made, for better or worse.
There’s a low-key, slow-burn intensity to Hunt’s film that gives it a semblance of dramatic impetus but her attempts at creating poignancy are occasionally clumsy and ineffective, trying to anchor smaller moments with the weight of a mostly non-existent deeper meaning.
Certainly Leo’s performance is the film’s defining force and major reason for seeing it. Best known for her role in the early years on the great Baltimore-set drama Homicide: Life on the Streets, she pours everything of herself into this raw and jagged portrayal of a mother staring off the deep end of despair, turning to desperate measures to escape the bonds of her impoverished existence. But a certain level of depth of characterisation is missing and though not unlikable, neither Ray nor her plight fills our hearts with any profound empathy.
Melissa Leo as Ray
The sense of impending danger as she thrusts herself deeper into a commitment to illegality never really develops much momentum either. Hunt’s steadfast determination to create a meaningful central character, but leaving us with only peripheral understanding of those around her, is perhaps the film’s most glaring weakness, though both Upham and Charlie McDermott as eldest son T.J. do well with their limited material.
On the other hand, the unusual setting with its ambiguous boundaries between tribal land and anonymous, chilly terrain is a distinct advantage. The story too, dealing with events rarely portrayed, has enough originality to overcome some of the film’s more obvious deficiencies - many of which are exacerbated by the limited budget, and the digital video photography (whether a creative choice or a limitation imposed by the lack of finances).
Ray with Lila (Misty Upham)
Then there’s the unstartling style Hunt adopts in her direction. She uses a fairly formal, simplistic technique, which although not without a gritty, low-budget authenticity, leaves a slightly underwhelming impression overall.
Despite some minor reservations, Frozen River does deserves the attention it's received, especially for Melissa Leo’s brave performance as Ray, but its modesty and lack of technical creativity are bound to confine it to the margins of film history, as another small but worthy project that flies under most people's radar. Without the Oscar-nomination this film may have completely disappeared without a trace but it’s certainly good enough to earn the wider audience it’s now bound to attract.
Charlie McDermott as ray's eldest son T.J
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