Frozen River

Release Date (UK) - 17 July 2009

Certificate (UK) - 15

Country - USA

Director - Courtney Hunt

Runtime - 97 mins

Starring - Melissa Leo, Misty Upham

This compelling drama follows the story of Ray (Melissa Leo) who is struggling to cope to look after her two sons on a part time job after her gambling husband left her with the money she had saved up to buy a new home. Tracking down the car her husband abandoned before leaving she meets Lila (Misty Upham) a Mohawk who is using her car to smuggle immigrants over the New York and Quebec border crossing a frozen river around the Mohawk reservation. Desperate for money Ray collaborates, just so she can get enough to buy the new home she has promised her youngest son for Christmas. It turns out that Lila is also a mother but her child was taken away by her mother in law and she too is smuggling so she can get money so she can claim her child back.

The setting is beautifully and the film is well shot and so well acted that you feel that this could definitely be a real story going on somewhere in poverty stricken homes. Although the story is quite original the growing trend of immigration and smugging films is kind of an odd genre to be so popular, perhaps reflecting a growing trend in media attention on the subject - last years Trade and the upcoming Crossing Over and Sin Nombre are films that come to mind. Its the sort of film where you really root for the characters to succeed so if that's something you look for in a film then this is a great watch.