In this ongoing series, I continue my countdown of the best films released in UK Cinemas in 2009.
#49 - Frozen River (Courtney Hunt)
For your consideration
Blue in collar and earnest in its portrayal of desperate people driven by economic hard times, you could be forgiven, if at times, you feel like you're watching a 70's American Indie complete with stonewashed skies, social fatigue and a bleakness that permeates throughout. That's not to say that Frozen River, Courtney Hunt's directorial debut (some 15 years in the making), is to be compared with the likes of Five Easy Pieces or Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; it's a well made and executed low budget indie and, on the surface at least, it's a Sundance shoe-in, (where it won a Grand Jury Prize in 2008), however it does cover similar themes and issues that those 70's films stressed and captured, which suggests a cyclical pattern in American society now being caught by a new generation of film makers.
We follow the plight of Ray, played with understated panache by Melissa Leo, a stalwart television actress known for her star turn in Homicide: Life on the Streets, in a role that became her breakout moment, earning herself an Oscar nomination in the process, (fast forward several years later and another Oscar Nomination, for David O. Russell's 'The Fighter', bags an actual award, sending Leo's profile to superstardom), playing a mother coping against a plethora of troubles on the brink of Christmas. With a gambling addicted husband who's run off with the family savings, Ray is left to cope with two kids in a dingy trailer with mounting debts, a crappy part time job and the prospect of missing out on the families dream (and much needed) prefab house 'the double wide', Ray faces an unknown future with little money and escalating problems.
Enter Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a Mohawk living on the Mohawk reservation, situated on a border crossing between New York and Quebec, also living a stark hand to mouth existence in the rough terrain, sleeping in a trailer that seems to be falling apart. In Ray's attempt to find her husband, she witnesses Lila stealing the family car and gives chase, in a confrontation at Lila's trailer she is tricked into helping her by being told that she could get a good price for the vehicle. It's the beginning a mutual relationship borne out of need and desperation, Lila in fact needs a car with a trunk (something she is banned on purchasing by the Mohawk council, which indicates that she's being doing this for some time and the power and influence the Mohawk's have over their own people) and dupes Ray into people smuggling across the huge St Lawrence river, frozen with thick ice, that acts as a border between the two countries.
It's the cold reality that these scenes are played which truly resonate in Frozen River, alongside the scenes on the inner workings of the Mohawk council, there is no room for moralising or debate within in these moments, Ray and Lila act, get paid and deliver the goods. On asking why some of the people she's smuggling in the car trunk have had their shoes removed, Ray is told that it's to stop them running off before they've paid their owners back for the smuggling fee, often a ludicrously high figure that most people would struggle to see in their life time, Ray seems to ponder this news before shrugging it off, it's of no real concern to her, morals won't bring in the money. Courtney Hunt's protagonists stare starkly into their respective broken lives (Lila is a widow and her only child is in the care of her in-laws who deem her responsible for the death of their son) amidst an overwhelming credit crunch, poor job prospects surrounded by harsh terrain which in turn drive them to extraordinary circumstances in order to fend off the inevitable, there is no room to question how money is made here.
Frozen River is a film of austerity with measured words and actions, short term goals such as your next meal, feeding your kids, making rent and ensuring all around you doesn't collapse at any possible moment become all encompassing and immediate; welcome to the America of 2008 for many people in Ray and Lila's position. Even the shots of the sparse and barren land are frugal, nothing is ever given away and we don't bask in the beautiful frozen lake either, this isn't something to admire and breathe in, Frozen River at every turn wants us to feel the smallness of life. From human smuggling, to despondent bosses (Ray's boss doesn't see Ray as a long termer, a reason he gives not to promote her despite working in the job for two years), gun toting gangsters and surly in-laws, the prevailing mode is one of pragmatism and all told with a minimum of emotion. It's only the ending which betrays the otherwise stoic stance, a veer to the melodramatic in a move that still has its finger set firmly on the side of cold logic.
So, a timely film and one of the first to show the current suffering in times of the credit crunch with its stranded and divided populous; Lila often refers to Ray as 'white woman' and knows of her worth if it happens to be Ray driving the car and not some 'Mohawk' when they pass a police car, taking whatever means they can to ensure they're not left behind. It's a film about skating on thin ice, hardened emotions, tough lives; you can feel the dirt under Melissa Leo's fingernails and could easily lie in one of her drooping eyelids, yet there is hope in making whatever connection you can with fellow sufferers. It's also a thriller and at times it's fist clenching, a night time job across the ice exposes some of the latent racism underpinning this part of the world, a bag belonging to a Pakistani couple may contain a bomb according to Ray, yet the contents are as far removed from explosive material as can be.
There may well be contrivance in the film's ending scenes, not to say some gaping plot holes, but it's far from a totally happy one, there's a real kinship between Ray and Lila and the audience come to care deeply about their respective lives and tribulations. All in all this is a fine directorial debut, one that leaves you waiting for Courtney Hunt's next venture, which stays well long in the memory, not only for Melissa Leo's near silent tour de force, her assertiveness never fully masking her quiet desperation, (of course she should have won but it was the year of the Winslet after all) but for refusing to axe grind any political grievances or to sentimentalise the predicaments of Ray and Lila. That's not something you can say about all Sundance Grand Prize Jury winners.
#48 Home (Ursula Meier) #50 Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
#49 - Frozen River (Courtney Hunt) For your consideration
Blue in collar and earnest in its portrayal of desperate people driven by economic hard times, you could be forgiven, if at times, you feel like you're watching a 70's American Indie complete with stonewashed skies, social fatigue and a bleakness that permeates throughout. That's not to say that Frozen River, Courtney Hunt's directorial debut (some 15 years in the making), is to be compared with the likes of Five Easy Pieces or Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore; it's a well made and executed low budget indie and, on the surface at least, it's a Sundance shoe-in, (where it won a Grand Jury Prize in 2008), however it does cover similar themes and issues that those 70's films stressed and captured, which suggests a cyclical pattern in American society now being caught by a new generation of film makers.
We follow the plight of Ray, played with understated panache by Melissa Leo, a stalwart television actress known for her star turn in Homicide: Life on the Streets, in a role that became her breakout moment, earning herself an Oscar nomination in the process, (fast forward several years later and another Oscar Nomination, for David O. Russell's 'The Fighter', bags an actual award, sending Leo's profile to superstardom), playing a mother coping against a plethora of troubles on the brink of Christmas. With a gambling addicted husband who's run off with the family savings, Ray is left to cope with two kids in a dingy trailer with mounting debts, a crappy part time job and the prospect of missing out on the families dream (and much needed) prefab house 'the double wide', Ray faces an unknown future with little money and escalating problems.
Enter Lila Littlewolf (Misty Upham), a Mohawk living on the Mohawk reservation, situated on a border crossing between New York and Quebec, also living a stark hand to mouth existence in the rough terrain, sleeping in a trailer that seems to be falling apart. In Ray's attempt to find her husband, she witnesses Lila stealing the family car and gives chase, in a confrontation at Lila's trailer she is tricked into helping her by being told that she could get a good price for the vehicle. It's the beginning a mutual relationship borne out of need and desperation, Lila in fact needs a car with a trunk (something she is banned on purchasing by the Mohawk council, which indicates that she's being doing this for some time and the power and influence the Mohawk's have over their own people) and dupes Ray into people smuggling across the huge St Lawrence river, frozen with thick ice, that acts as a border between the two countries.
It's the cold reality that these scenes are played which truly resonate in Frozen River, alongside the scenes on the inner workings of the Mohawk council, there is no room for moralising or debate within in these moments, Ray and Lila act, get paid and deliver the goods. On asking why some of the people she's smuggling in the car trunk have had their shoes removed, Ray is told that it's to stop them running off before they've paid their owners back for the smuggling fee, often a ludicrously high figure that most people would struggle to see in their life time, Ray seems to ponder this news before shrugging it off, it's of no real concern to her, morals won't bring in the money. Courtney Hunt's protagonists stare starkly into their respective broken lives (Lila is a widow and her only child is in the care of her in-laws who deem her responsible for the death of their son) amidst an overwhelming credit crunch, poor job prospects surrounded by harsh terrain which in turn drive them to extraordinary circumstances in order to fend off the inevitable, there is no room to question how money is made here.
So, a timely film and one of the first to show the current suffering in times of the credit crunch with its stranded and divided populous; Lila often refers to Ray as 'white woman' and knows of her worth if it happens to be Ray driving the car and not some 'Mohawk' when they pass a police car, taking whatever means they can to ensure they're not left behind. It's a film about skating on thin ice, hardened emotions, tough lives; you can feel the dirt under Melissa Leo's fingernails and could easily lie in one of her drooping eyelids, yet there is hope in making whatever connection you can with fellow sufferers. It's also a thriller and at times it's fist clenching, a night time job across the ice exposes some of the latent racism underpinning this part of the world, a bag belonging to a Pakistani couple may contain a bomb according to Ray, yet the contents are as far removed from explosive material as can be.
There may well be contrivance in the film's ending scenes, not to say some gaping plot holes, but it's far from a totally happy one, there's a real kinship between Ray and Lila and the audience come to care deeply about their respective lives and tribulations. All in all this is a fine directorial debut, one that leaves you waiting for Courtney Hunt's next venture, which stays well long in the memory, not only for Melissa Leo's near silent tour de force, her assertiveness never fully masking her quiet desperation, (of course she should have won but it was the year of the Winslet after all) but for refusing to axe grind any political grievances or to sentimentalise the predicaments of Ray and Lila. That's not something you can say about all Sundance Grand Prize Jury winners.
#48 Home (Ursula Meier) #50 Public Enemies (Michael Mann)
This really was a great film...personally I prefer it to this year's WNITER'S BONE, which has drawn a lot of comparisons. Looking forward to seeing what other films you select for your countdown
ReplyDeleteAgree this is a better film than Winter's Bone. Frozen River absorbs from frame one.
ReplyDeleteYep...definitely a good film. The comparisons with Winter's Bone are there but I like both as they portray the poorer classes so well, and the desperate straights they find themselves in, and the lengths they go to to make money. Both are quite sad in their respective ways.
ReplyDelete