Driving by her deep will of earning money and support her two sons, Ray Eddy, a hard-working woman, who after being left with no money by her husband, struggles against finding a job, joins a woman that works on the illegal immigration to Canada, the thing that challenges her.
Melissa Leo's Oscar-nominated performance as a mother not above illegal business, but resolutely clinging to honesty and not giving into hypocrisy, is terrific. Hope comes from hard sacrifice in a finale proving sometimes possessions are our blessings.
Frozen River isn't just a good movie made by a woman; it's a good movie on anyone's terms, one of the year's best. To find hope beneath this ice, in this ugly terrain, is to dream big.
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.
