Frozen River (2008) is such a good movie because of Courtney Hunt, its writer and director. Although Courtney was born and raised in Tennessee, she can relate to the characters of up-state New York. She was raised by a single-mom from age 3 on, and this no doubt gives her empathy with the two main characters and moms in Frozen River. The principal, Ray (Melissa Leo), is a poverty-stricken mom of two boys, whose husband runs off with the money to go gambling. Through a circuitous route, Ray teams up with a young Mohawk single mom, Lila (Misty Upham), to smuggle illegal immigrants across the Canada-US border, the frozen St. Lawrence River.
Courtney Hunt also spent 10 years getting to know the people she was writing about. No, not ten days. Thus, if you know anything about North American reserve cultures, you’ll appreciate the realistic tid-bits such as the band won’t allow Lila to buy a big car because they know she wants to use it to smuggle. The word has come down, and the young used car salesman on the Mohawk reserve has to point her to the compacts which would never make it across the frozen river.
Courtney Hunt brings a serious, academic brain to movie making. I love to read a script or see a movie by someone who thinks like a good novelist. While it may be trendy to have the latest pyrotechnics from rock videos, it only means that you can make a movie that looks good, but is probably full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. While it may be commendable to learn your craft on day-time television, it can easily mean that you learn how to make the puerile more palatable but still unsatisfying. Ms Hunt has a B. A., Sarah Lawrence College, a law degree from Northeastern University, and then an MFA from Columbia.
Courtney Hunt also has a good movie pedigree. Her favourites are movies from the mid-70s to the early 80s. Her favourites include Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More, Paper Moon, and The 400 Blows, and let’s throw in one from a few years earlier, Dr. Zhivago.. She likes directors such as Bogdanovich, Scorcese, Paul Schrader, and Sidney Polllack. These guys are not on the current trendy list, and they are great directors.
Courtney Hunt is smart, confident, and tactful. If you want to see all of these traits at work, read her interview with a woman at the intellectual The Huffington Review:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-silverstein/interview-with-courtney-h_b_116411.html
Hunt absolutely refuses to bite at the simplistic feminist line thrown out time and time again. Sure, she wrote and directed a movie about two women with feminist issues involved, but that does not mean that she is not well beyond knee-jerk feminism. I particularly welcomed her comments as to why men like the movie: “If suspense keeps me viable then that's good. The next generation of men are totally comfortable seeing a woman protagonist as long as she's doing something. These relationship movies won't appeal to them . . . Everything doesn't have to be va va voom in order to keep the male viewer watching. A woman engaged in fascinating action is just as interesting as a guy, in fact more so since we've seen guys pretty much do everything.“
The suspense works because we care about Ray and her kids. One of the most moving scenes for me was when her 15 year old son ( a captivating performance by Charlie McDermott) has to look after things on Christmas eve. He doesn’t know where his mother really is—she says she’s working late. As usual he’s taking care of his little 5-year old brother, the water pipes under the trailer freeze, there are no presents under the Christmas tree, and he tries to shoulder the burden. What if the ubiquitous cops catch Ray and Lila?
Courtney Hunt knows exactly what the themes of her movie are (how refreshing!): Doing the right thing even though you are disadvantaged, and moving beyond your racial biases. Right on! This doesn’t mean the movie is perfect. There are a few awkward scenes. And at the crucial turning point in the movie, I was not sure why Ray made the decision she did—until I thought about it for a day. This might be a bit too subtle for the average viewer, and one sentence of dialogue such as “It was my idea” would solve the issue.
The film was shot in 24 days in mid-winter around Plattsburgh, NY, for under 1 million dollars. Hunt is not afraid of the cold, and her husband, the executive produceer, showed major support by rtaising money from every fellow lawyer, every business person, every donor he could find, even while the shooting was going on. The entire crew and cast should be proud of the product. The movie is certinaly worth seeing!