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Movies / On DVD / Frozen River
Frozen River

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Frozen River (2008)

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Reviews Counted:122

Fresh:107

Rotten:15

Average Rating:7.3/10

Consensus: Veteran character actress Melissa Leo delivers a stunning performance in this powerful -- if grim -- indie film.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for some language.

Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:17-07-2009

Synopsis: Courtney Hunt's feature directorial debut FROZEN RIVER is a powerfully unflinching tale of two women, who, driven by economic hardship, form an unlikely partnership smuggling illegal immigrants... Courtney Hunt's feature directorial debut FROZEN RIVER is a powerfully unflinching tale of two women, who, driven by economic hardship, form an unlikely partnership smuggling illegal immigrants across the Canadian border. Melissa Leo turns in a gritty performance as Ray, a struggling dollar-store cashier and mother living in a trailer home in upstate New York who is desperate to make ends meet. When Ray's gambling-addicted husband runs off with the family's payment on a new doublewide trailer, her life quickly spirals into a financial tailspin. During a frenzied search for her deadbeat spouse, she apprehends Lila (Misty Upham), a Mohawk Indian from an area reservation, attempting to steal her car. In the process of taking back her vehicle, she learns of Lila's smuggling operation through an unpatrolled corridor within Mohawk territory--the frozen St. Lawrence River that forms part of the border between the U.S. and Canada. Out of necessity, they form an uneasy alliance: Ray, working to meet the payment's deadline, and Lila, who scrambles to earn money to redeem herself to her estranged in-laws and infant child. Within a stark, mostly minimalist screenplay, Hunt seamlessly works in contemporary anxieties: economic recession, immigration, and trafficking, but never puts too fine a point on social relevance to the detriment of a compelling storyline. As the plot heats up, the stakes Ray and Lila encounter get higher and the danger, more real. FROZEN RIVER is more than a somber meditation on lives in peril, it's a complex portrait of women from different walks of life struggling to find their ethical bearings in a harsh, unforgiving, and corrupt world. [More]

Starring: Melissa Chessington Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Michael O'Keefe

Starring: Melissa Chessington Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott, Michael O'Keefe, Mark Boone, Mark Boone Junior

Director: Courtney Hunt

Director: Courtney Hunt
Screenwriter: Courtney Hunt
Producer: Heather Rae, Chip Hourihan
Composer: Peter Golub, Shahad Ismaily
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Reviews for Frozen River

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Courtney Hunt's low-budget blue-collar thriller, Frozen River, is one of the most impressive feature debuts of the past several years.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
07/24/09
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

Actress Melissa Leo rightly earned an Oscar nomination for her part in this downbeat drama.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
07/24/09
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

Frozen River is a taut, suspenseful thriller; a troubling of borders both cultural and national; and testament to the virtues of communion, empathy and compassion.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
07/17/09
Emma Paterson
Emma Paterson
Little White Lies

Original, sad, suspenseful and involving: the kind of work that helps independent American cinema retain its good name.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
07/17/09
Angie Errigo
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Occasionally marred by contrivance and a crude internal logic that doesn’t bear close scrutiny, ‘Frozen River’ works best as a knuckle-gnawing, blue-collar genre thriller.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
07/17/09
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Leo and Upham give performances of great conviction and the film is bold and uncliched: especially the matter-of-fact treatment of guns.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It’s Leo, with her pained and battered magnetism - half-pleading, half screw-you - who shakes the film out of its occasional glibness, notching up the performance of her career in thrilling, hungry style.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
07/17/09
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Everything about the film looks and feels authentic, from the desolate landscape dotted with trailers and fast-food joints to the people who populate a borderland that offers none of them much hope.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
07/17/09
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

A fascinating, understated look at the human condition.

Full Review Source: Digital Spy | comment Comment
07/17/09
Ben Rawson-Jones
Ben Rawson-Jones
Digital Spy

Cold yet never calculating, it's a fine film featuring a heart-rendingly knockout performance of steel and strength from Leo.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
07/17/09
Tim Evans
Tim Evans
Sky Movies

Leo and Upham make an unlikely double act in a finely written, well-played film with a striking plot and setting. Hunt’s clearly a name to watch; Leo, meanwhile, can look forward to finally getting the recognition, and roles, she deserves.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
07/17/09
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
Total Film

As a quiet celebration of ordinary women's resourcefulness, the film is well-crafted, sensitively acted and modestly affecting.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

While there is much to admire, there is little to enjoy as downtrodden folk try to make money the hard way. At heart it is a sentimental drama that rarely connects.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Mark Adams
Mark Adams
Sunday Mirror [UK]

Frozen River will penetrate your core like a biting Arctic wind.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
07/17/09
Sun Online

Early scenes have a raddled power. Later ones slip into a Chistmastide slush of contrivance and redemption.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
07/17/09
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

A modest but thrilling drama.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
07/17/09
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Frozen River represents one of the best examples of the new trend for austerity and social realism in American indie cinema.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
07/17/09
Wendy Ide
Wendy Ide
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This feels like a story destined to end in tragedy but although there are plenty of opportunities to transform this into a heartbreaker, writer/director Courtney Hunt allows the audience a ray of hope.

Full Review Source: Daily Express | comment Comment
07/17/09
Allan Hunter
Allan Hunter
Daily Express

The surprising twists and turns in the final act are both powerful and haunting.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
07/17/09
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

This is that rarest of beasts - an indie thriller that tries to win over viewers not with crowbarred-in whimsy but with a gripping plot and two brilliant lead characters.

Full Review Source: News of the World | comment Comment
07/17/09
Robbie Collin
Robbie Collin
News of the World
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Frozen River

February 13, 2009: RT Interview: Oscar Nominee Melissa Leo
Veteran character actress Melissa Leo may not be a household name, but with more than 70 film and television roles to her credit, she's built an impressive resume of supporting... More...

February 09, 2009: RT on DVD: Oliver's W, Spike's St. Anna, and My Name is Bruce!
What better way to celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama by watching Oliver Stone's W. this week on DVD? While a handful of middling studio releases hit home... More...

February 08, 2009: Hunt has achieved a remarkable work with Frozen River, that is both a poignant and exquisitely life-affirming sisterhood rite of passage, and a rare glimpse into the overwhelmed but enduring spirit of the Mohawk Nation. Opens in new window
More...

January 08, 2009: Broadcast Film Critics Name Critics' Choice Winners
The 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards were given on January 8, 2009, to honor the finest achievements in 2008 filmmaking. A list of nominees follows below, with winners in bold: More...

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