Saturday, February 21, 2009

Frozen River


frozenriver1
Originally uploaded by Alessandra Ogeda
Ray & Lila are an unlikely team; Ray is a working mom struggling to make ends meet after her husband robs them and disappears, and Lila is a young widow who has resorted to smuggling while she tries to get her infant son back from her mother-in-law. Together the women begin to smuggle immigrants across the border into Canada and soon get in over their heads.

I have to say the best part about Frozen River is that I didn’t know what to expect from it; I knew it had been nominated for many, many ISA’s and Melissa Leo was nominated for best actress so I netflixed it and was pleasantly surprised.

Frozen River is a raw, gritty film, and that only adds to the flavor and feel of the story. By the talents of the filmmakers and cast you feel the pain, cold, regret and desperation that Ray, Lila and their children are steeped in. This is a story where there are no good choices, only hard ones; these decisions become the right choices just because of the reasons these characters force themselves into them. Lila and Ray are women caught in hopeless situations, women who would never have interacted with one another, until fate (and Ray’s husband) forces them together and they discover they have more in common than they care to admit.

This film is writer/director Courtney Hunt’s first film and it blew me away. This movie gives me confidence that my first film can be just as phenomenal.

Director & Writer: Courtney Hunt
Ray Eddy: Melissa Leo
Lila Littlewolf: Misty Upham
T.J. Eddy: Charlie McDermott
Ricky Eddy: James Reilly

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