Frozen River
| Frozen River | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
| Directed by | Courtney Hunt |
| Produced by |
Heather Rae Chip Hourihan |
| Written by | Courtney Hunt |
| Starring |
Melissa Leo Misty Upham Charlie McDermott Michael O'Keefe Mark Boone Junior |
| Music by | Peter Golub Shahzad Ali Ismaily |
| Cinematography | Reed Morano |
| Edited by | Kate Willams |
|
Production
company |
|
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
97 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English French Chinese Urdu |
| Budget | $1 million |
| Box office | $5,133,210 |
Frozen River is a 2008 American crime drama film written and directed by Courtney Hunt. The screenplay focuses on two working-class women who smuggle illegal immigrants from Canada to the United States. It received two Academy Award nominations: Best Actress (Melissa Leo) and Best Original Screenplay (Courtney Hunt).
The film is set shortly before Christmas in the North Country of Upstate New York, near the Akwesasne ('Where the Partridge Drums') St. Regis Mohawk Reservation and the border crossing to Cornwall, Ontario. Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is a discount store clerk struggling to raise two sons with her husband, a compulsive gambler who has disappeared with the funds she had earmarked to finance the purchase of a double-wide mobile home. While searching for him, she encounters Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a Mohawk bingo-parlor employee who is driving his car, which she claims she found abandoned with the keys in the ignition at the local bus station. The two women, who have both fallen on hard economic times, form a desperate and uneasy alliance and begin trafficking illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States across the frozen St. Lawrence River for $1,200 each.
Ray's older son T.J. wants to find a job and help support the family so they can afford to eat something more substantial than popcorn and Tang. He and his mother clash over whether he should remain in high-school and look after his little brother Ricky or drop out to work. To make matters worse, T.J. sets an outside corner of the trailer afire with a torch in an attempt to unfreeze the water pipe. Lila longs for the day she will be able to reclaim and live with her young son, who was taken from her by her mother-in-law immediately after his birth.
...
Wikipedia