Frozen River

But so is Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham),
a widowed Mohawk mom whose mother-in-law has taken away her baby. To
make ends meet, Lila has been involved with covertly transporting
immigrants across the Canadian border while driving atop the
frozen-solid St. Lawrence River. And since Ray’s Dodge Spirit boasts a
roomy trunk that can hold human cargo, say two Chinese illegal aliens
per trip, the two women form their own peculiar matriarchal pact
through smuggling as both struggle to keep their respective families
together. 

Hunt’s feature, an expansion of her 2004
short film of the same title that also starred Leo and Upham, charts
the insurmountable gap between those eking out an existence on the
poverty level and their quest for the American dream. Leo offers a
heartbreakingly realistic turn as her Ray continually searches for
money she doesn’t have, from overturning couch cushions for loose
change to pay for her kids’ school lunches to staving off the
rent-to-own guys from repossessing the family’s TV set. Leo, a flinty
character actress, can look radiant in one shot, and incredibly dowdy
in the next. 

Upham’s Lila makes a good emotional
counterpart. In the early scenes, she stresses the differences between
Natives and “non-Natives” to her benefit (“There is no crime,” Lila
says about the illegal border crossings, “this is a truce between
nations.”), yet a key sequence dealing with the perilous smuggling of a
Pakistani couple also strengthens the bonds of motherhood between Ray
and Lila. Charlie McDermott stands out amid the supporting players as
Ray’s teen son T.J., a confused lad who at one point crafts a
credit-card scam to help mom with the finances. And director Hunt
ratchets up the tension with the simplest of touches, such as Ray’s
need for antifreeze to prevent fogged windows. In Frozen River, Hunt’s frigid depiction of the Plattsburgh locations manages to be as bleak and fascinating as her characters’ existences.