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Veteran character actress Melissa Leo delivers a stunning performance in this powerful -- if grim -- indie film. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
After her husband deserts her, working-class mother Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is in great need of money to find a home. Lured by the possibility of easy cash, Ray joins Lila (Misty Upham) a widowed Mohawk who earns a living by smuggling immigrants from Canada to the U.S. across the St. Lawrence.
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Rating: R (Some Language)
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: English
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Director: Courtney Hunt
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Producer: Chip Hourihan, Heather Rae
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Writer: Courtney Hunt
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Release Date (Theaters): limited
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $2.5M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
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Production Co: Harwood Hunt
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for Frozen River
Critic Reviews for Frozen River
Audience Reviews for Frozen River
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Having been acting since 1984, "Frozen River" marked Melissa Leo's revival, bringing her an Oscar nomination and an a continued impressive career to follow. Bringing to life the white trash life style in New York, Ray's (Melissa Leo) dreams of getting a new double-wide trailer with a jacuzzi tub are dashed when her gambling husband runs off with all their money. Suddenly thrown into the world of smuggling illegal immigrants to the U.S. by means of a Native American reservation, director Courtney Hunt brings this incredibly dark story to life, creating a tight-knit film that runs on necessity, and means to an end. Leo must provide for her two sons and with the double-wide hanging over their heads and a dead end part-time job, smuggling immigrants becomes a main source of living. Mirrored by co-star Misty Upham, as the Native American, Lila Littlewolf, who gets Ray involved in the racket, she is unable to be with her child, who was taken after her husband was killed. Together, they find a silent understanding that although this may be illegal, it gets them closer to providing for their families and therefore presents a silver lining. However, when strange factors begin to play, including a mysterious duffel bag that brings about some alarming drama and the arm of the law coming down in the form of a local sheriff, the thriller portion of the film takes full effect. Melissa Leo delivers an amazing performance and makes "Frozen River" a pleasure to watch.
chris h Super Reviewer -
Melissa Leo's breakout role is tremendously good. Her interactions with Lila are fabulous as two individuals thrown together by circumstance.Gritty in a good way.
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A struggling single mum, Ray, is left in the lurch when her husband randomly leaves her and she can't afford to pay for a new home for her and her two kids, let alone Christmas. When she gets a chance to make some easy money transporting people over the Canadian border along with a fellow single mother she does. But the more she does it the more dangerous it becomes. Melissa Leo's performnce as Ray is brilliant and earned her an Oscar nomination and although i wasn't blown away, this is a well made thriller and worth a look.
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Written and directed by Courtney Hunt, the screenplay focuses on two working-class women who smuggle illegal immigrants in the trunk of a car from Canada to the United States in order to make ends meet. Melissa Leo was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her impressive role. The film is set in the North Country of Upstate New York, near the Akwesasne ('Where the Partridge Drum') St. Regis Mohawk Reservation and the Canadian border, shortly before Christmas. Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is a discount store clerk struggling to raise two sons with her husband, a compulsive gambler who has disappeared with the funds she had earmarked to finance the purchase of a double-wide mobile home. While searching for him, she encounters Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a Mohawk bingo-parlor employee who is driving his car, which she claims she found abandoned with the keys in the ignition at the local bus-station. The two women, who have fallen on hard economic times, form a desperate and uneasy alliance and begin trafficking illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States across the frozen St. Lawrence River for $1200 each per crossing. Wonderful cinematography and music. Superb.
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