Courtney Hunt
Frozen River

"Frozen River" is truly independent cinema. Grainy photography, a shoestring budget, no concessions to the Hollywood show.

The debut film of director Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River" is the big screen portrayal of an everyday story. We are in the USA of poverty, in the frontier zones. The regions of flannel shirts and jeans worn beyond their limits. Of cold and resignation, dirt and hunger, crime, and lost humanity. Ray, played by a monumental Melissa Leo, has been left penniless by her husband. She lives in a trailer with her two children, struggling to put something on the table that's more than popcorn for lunch. Then she discovers a business: transporting across the St. Lawrence River, the border between Canada and the USA, immigrants who want to illegally enter American soil. The region of the Mohawk natives aids this trade. It's the only way for her and Lila (Misty Upham) to make some money and at least try to provide a future for their children.

A film released almost 10 years ago that encapsulates all the desperation of the United States as it headed toward the abyss of an economic crisis. While it's true that Ray is abandoned by her husband, job opportunities also seem lacking to maintain a minimally dignified level of life. The director doesn't succumb to rhetoric, doesn't aim to soften the audience, and avoids the typical sappiness that distorts films of this kind. She remains firmly anchored to reality, creating a true frontier film/documentary, that appears as real as the daily life of the story told. Hunt follows the characters closely with the camera, avoiding static shots, in order to create a mood that almost seems to stylistically underline the precariousness of the characters' lives. Life is precarious, economic conditions are precarious, crossing a frozen river and dealing with the Chinese mafia is precarious. The two women are heroines of a broken world, struggling not to lose what little humanity remains.

Such little cinematic jewels that do not submit to a market that, after having destroyed independent and genre cinema, has achieved its primary aim: to produce only blockbusters and bring everyone back in front of the TV with the proliferation of TV series, are increasingly rare. In this scenario, "Frozen River" is a small yet great gem of old-school cinema, visually ungraceful and tremendously real. No artificiality, but real and everyday drama for those confined to the margins.