Frozen River movie review

Although Frozen River is about human trafficking, the movie's title carries a powerful metaphor throughout the film. Two single mothers must make difficult and ultimately illegal decisions to provide for their children. Because of economic peril and desperation, they have become frozen to the moral or legal realities of their respective worlds. Ray Eddy, a single white mother to two boys, loses her husband and subsequent deposit on a new double wide trailer to his gambling addiction. Lila Littlewolf, loses her husband to trafficking on the river; unable to maintain a job because she needs glasses but chooses to forgo them to provide for her son thus continues her dangerous money making venture. Both women fall victim to circumstances inflicted by men in their lives which are further compacted by racial tensions. Throughout the movie, Lila maintains Cacausin Ray does not have to worry about being stopped by the police or even have to worry about the loss of her car, overlooking that this white woman takes the same mortal and legal risk becuase she of her similiar desparation. Furthermore, Rays needs Lila to make contact with the other Mohawk traffickers.

Gradually, the movie points to poignant scenes that have led these women to such acts of crime. Poor Ray lives in a beat-up trailer with two sons and works part-time at a dollar store; even though she has been an exemplary worker for two years, her young male boss refuses to move her to a full-time position because he sees her as "short-time." We see how things really are, when a cute young employee comes in for her shift late, again. Mohawks try to help Lila stay on the straight and narrow by helping her find a job which she quits because of her poor vision, but allow her in-laws to take her newborn son right out of the hospital. When Ray questions this, Lila replies "tribal police don't get involved in things like that."

While there is one scene that teeters on cheesy, but still poignant, with an obvious metaphor to the rebirth of Christ, the film as a whole is brilliant and masterfully done. The plot is more about the struggle and relationship of these two women, brought together by the seemy undertones of human trafficking. Usually human traficking yields a high profit, yet none of the people in this movie are depicted as wealthy, on the contrary all seem to turn to trafficking because of economic hardship, the same reason creating conditions for people to become trafficked.

While the first runs of cargo are men, only at the end do we see a couple of women who are obviously being trafficked into sex slavery. The pick-up location is a strip club/bordello in the backwoods of Montreal. When the hand-off man, Jacque brings the human cargo out--two young, terrified women who appear to have already been brutalized--Ray and Lila appear conflicted because this is not the typical shipment they have accepted in the past. Against their better judgment, they decide to take them which leads to their so-called demise. But the movie ends proving these unlikely women develop a bond beyond friendship or crime partners. Their fierceness and tenacity to provide and care for their children and compassion for each other make way for an ultimately more sustainable, trafficking-free life together. And the two young Asian women safe in police custody hopefully do not get retrafficked into sexual slavery.