I was beginning to despair of finding any decent movies this year but then finally saw Frozen River. It’s a really well-done film. Melissa Leo should have TROUNCED Kate Winslet for the Oscar; it’s a lovely, understated performance in a low-key, interesting and suspenseful film.

They managed to tell the story – a woman pushed (by poverty, plus her own lack of coping skills) to start smuggling illegals over the Canadian border to make extra money – without manipulating the viewer or throwing in all kinds of junk to distract or amuse. It is an honest, low-key film played straight, and as such it is very refreshing. Even the scenes with the thugs are not glamorized or over-played, nor are the dramatic scenes with the police – they are all extremely well done, in my opinion.

The kids seem like real kids, and the Mohawk woman seems very real. They resist the temptation to have her serve as comic relief, or make her overly sentimental. She is just a boring, stifled, kind of base person that is written and played perfectly straight – not a very popular approach these days, but a very effective decision artistically.

Plus, the film has very interesting things to say about (mostly imagined) material needs and the lower economic strata of society, and how these “needs” obscure reason and cause us to act in unproductive or even destructive ways.

This film is definitely worth seeing. I’m not sure how well it will stand repeated viewing, but it is a nicely made film of very high quality.