Frozen River

written and directed by Courtney Hunt
USA; 2008

Why this film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance is an indication of the way most audiences watch independent and art-house cinema. To the movie-goer that doesn't live and breath film the way some of us do, an art-house movie is a piece of culture that causes the viewer to be placed on a higher plane of awareness. It's a talking point at a social gathering, or an impressive venue for a date. So it goes hand in hand that films based on "issues" from "real life" become such hits. The problem is that these films often set themselves up to fall, as the tightrope between social cause and narrative art piece is a very thin one to walk. Paradoxically, though, most viewers of art-house cinema will forgive a film for its narrative, dramatic, visual, or other artistic shortcomings in the name of its worthy social cause. Often the issue is hardly explored, as in the case of Frozen River, and it's as if this simplification makes it more powerful, perhaps because it's easier for audiences to digest. In the end, the filmmaking is distracted and ultimately suffers, but it's the coverage of the issue itself that suffers the most. Print articles, news media, and even documentary films are more appropriate outlets for journalism than narratives.

Frozen River's director Courtney Hunt employs some silly plot contrivances to drive a dull story. The climax requires a significant stretch of the imagination in order to make any sense at all, but what's really sad is that actress Melissa Leo's skillful performance as hero single mother Ray Eddy is sabotaged by a horribly contrived character flaw. She has no problem trafficking Chinese people across the Canada-US border, but when a "Paki" family hops in her trunk, she objects with: "As long as they're not the kind that blow up themselves and everyone else." Why Ms. Hunt would imbue an otherwise intelligent character with such a rock-headed red-state racism eludes me, other than perhaps to imply that "simple folks" have "simple ideas," or some other such nonsense. It's pathetic, and it merely serves to motivate Ray Eddy's decision to leave an important "package" on the ice and add some narrative spike to an otherwise flattening story.

The scenes at home in the trailer are far more interesting than this manufactured story, or the vague glimpse Hunt provides into a seedy underworld that barely scratches the surface of what is involved with human trafficking. The trailer scenes at least resemble a well-made film. By the end, though, there is too much clunky plot in the way. The entire climax plays out with two scared and omnipresent Chinese women in the background. I refuse to be tricked by narrative convention into caring more about Ray Eddy's comparably luxurious existence when Hunt quite clearly is allowing me to see a much larger problem looming in the background. Want to raise awareness? Skip the narrative and make a documentary.