Melissa Leo

Director: Courtney Hunt, 2008. Frozen River is the low-budget debut for writer-director Hunt and garnered the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Festival. A slow drama, it has tension and several moral dilemmas that keep the audience's attention. While focusing attention on the issue of human trafficking, it shoots a spotlight on the survival of single mothers living below the poverty lines in lower class America. The movie is set in upstate New York, just below Quebec. Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is waiting to buy a new double-wide manufactured home but her husband has split with the cash to gamble it away. Ray is ... Read Full Story

First time director Courtney Hunt has chosen the stark setting of the Mohawk reservation bordering Canada in upstate New York for Frozen River , a tale that she penned about two women living on the edge who are driven to desperate measures to survive. Ray (Melissa Leo) is a middle-aged mom trying to raise two kids on her own. At first glance it appears that she's a victim of circumstance--her loser husband has cleared out, and her low paying job isn't bringing in enough scratch to keep up with the bills. But look a little closer and you'll see that most of her troubles ... Read Full Story

When her husband runs off with the payment for their new home, Ray (Melissa Leo, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) turns to crime to keep herself and her two sons afloat. A chance encounter with Lila (Misty Upham, Edge of America), an equally desperate young Mohawk woman, leads Ray to smuggling illegal immigrants by driving across the frozen Hudson River onto tribal land. But with every trip, things go wrong in small and not-so-small ways, until Ray finds herself pushed into a more desperate corner than ever before. Leo delivers a gritty, restrained, but richly compelling performance; her raw face, beautiful but worn ... Read Full Story

Memo to Oscar voters: This River must be crossed. Originally Published at Blogcritics in my Under the Radar Feature. With an MFA in film as well as a law degree, writer/director Courtney Hunt told Filmmaker Magazine ’s Scott Macaulay that she “wanted to do a story where women were really active, where they were really doing stuff. Not relationship stuff,” (Summer 2008; pg. 35). After her first short film was picked up for PBS’ American Playhouse , Hunt found herself fascinated upon the discovery of real life female smugglers going between New York and Canada and bringing in human traffic to provide for their ... Read Full Story

I heard about Courtney Hunt's debut film, Frozen River from a couple of people from my Oscar Watchers group. It was a great recommendation from them. This movie has been nominated for 7 Independent Spirit Awards. It is so deserved. I hope that Melissa Leo, Misty Upham and Courtney Hunt's script get nominated for Oscars. I am serious about that. This film was also recommended from Metacritic with a score of 82. The movie takes place a couple of days before Christmas in a desolate New York township where Ray (Melissa Leo) is in danger of having her furniture and her mobile home being ... Read Full Story