About this product

Product Information

A desperate single mother living in upstate New York resorts to smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States as a means of making ends meet in first-time feature director/screenwriter Courtney Hunt's emotionally wrenching drama, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Product Identifiers

ProducerHeather Rae, Chip Hourihan

EAN5060126870562

eBay Product ID (ePID)73984300

Product Key Features

ActorCharlie Mcdermott, Mark Boone, Jay Klaitz, Michael O'keefe, John Canoe, Michael Sky, Misty Upham, Dylan Carusona, James Reilly, Melissa Chessington Leo, Bernie Littlewolf

Film/TV TitleFrozen River

DirectorCourtney Hunt

LanguageEnglish

Run Time93 Mins

Aspect Ratio16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen

Release Year2009

FormatDVD

FeaturesWidescreen

GenreDrama, General

Additional Product Features

Number of Discs1

Certificate15

Country/Region of ManufactureUnited States of America

ComposerPeter Golub, Shahad Ismaily

Production DesignerInbal Weinberg

Additional InformationCourtney Hunt's feature directorial debut FROZEN RIVER is a powerfully unflinching tale of two women, who, driven by economic hardship, form an unlikely partnership smuggling illegal immigrants across the Canadian border. Melissa Leo turns in a gritty performance as Ray, a struggling dollar-store cashier and mother living in a trailer home in upstate New York who is desperate to make ends meet. When Ray's gambling-addicted husband runs off with the family's payment on a new doublewide trailer, her life quickly spirals into a financial tailspin. During a frenzied search for her deadbeat spouse, she apprehends Lila (Misty Upham), a Mohawk Indian from an area reservation, attempting to steal her car. In the process of taking back her vehicle, she learns of Lila's smuggling operation through an unpatrolled corridor within Mohawk territory--the frozen St. Lawrence River that forms part of the border between the U.S. and Canada. Out of necessity, they form an uneasy alliance: Ray, working to meet the payment's deadline, and Lila, who scrambles to earn money to redeem herself to her estranged in-laws and infant child. Within a stark, mostly minimalist screenplay, Hunt seamlessly works in contemporary anxieties: economic recession, immigration, and trafficking, but never puts too fine a point on social relevance to the detriment of a compelling storyline. As the plot heats up, the stakes Ray and Lila encounter get higher and the danger, more real. FROZEN RIVER is more than a sombre meditation on lives in peril, it's a complex portrait of women from different walks of life struggling to find their ethical bearings in a harsh, unforgiving, and corrupt world.

ReviewsEntertainment Weekly - In FROZEN RIVER, Leo's acting has a brittle severity and power. Every moment of her performance feels torn from experience, and so does the movie, which finds a suspense in broken lives that are hanging in the balance, Los Angeles Times - This intense indie drama of unlikely female partners involved in a smuggling operation on the Canadian border is a bracing character study, USA Today - A Sundance hit that is both absorbing and bleak, FROZEN RIVER is anchored by powerful performances, believable scenarios and excellent writing, Box Office - Melissa Leo delivers a beautifully understated performance as Ray Eddy....Writer/director Courtney Hunt keeps her bearings on Leo, granting the actress unparalleled latitude to evolve a character...

ScreenwriterCourtney Hunt

Sound sourceDolby Digital

EditorKate Williams

Movie/TV TitleFrozen River

Director of PhotographyReed Morano

Consumer AdviceContains strong language and moderate threat and violence