This year's winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Upstate New York in December is a bleak place. The sky is gray more often than not, the snow doesn't stay white for long, and even the countless strings of colored Christmas lights can't lighten the mood very much.
Against that backdrop, we meet Ray (Melissa Leo), whose husband has just run off on her -- again -- this time, taking with him the money that was supposed to be the balloon payment on a new double-wide trailer. Ray is given until Christmas to come up with the money, or she'll not only lose the trailer, but her $1500 deposit as well.
Desperate for quick money, Ray teams up with Lila (Misty Upham), a Mohawk from the local reservation, who smuggles illegal immigrants across the Canadian border. They're not really breaking the law, says Lila, because they're just driving people around within the Mohawk reservation, which straddles the border. That's a pretty flimsy piece of rationalization, as Lila obviously realizes, or she wouldn't be hiding her passengers in her trunk and driving them across the frozen river to avoid detection.
The first half of the movie is a lovely character study, with superb performances from both Leo and Upham. Leo is a character actress who's been doing fine work in small roles and small movies for years, and (as with Richard Jenkins in The Visitor earlier this year) it's a joy to see her finally get a juicy lead role. She lets the audience feel every bit of Ray's exhaustion and frustration at having yet another obstacle placed in her way just when she thought she might be getting a handle on things.
The second half of the movie is perhaps slightly overstuffed with plot, as if trying to cram two hours worth of story into 45 minutes, and the final negotiation happens so quickly that it's not quite clear what's happened or why.
But those are minor quibbles; the movie as a whole is absolutely worth seeing. In addition to the two central performances, there's also fine work from Charlie McDermott as Ray's 15-year-old son, and gorgeous cinematography by Reed Morano.
Most impressive is the movie's complete lack of condescension to its characters. American movies don't often do well with portrayals of the working poor, but writer-director Courtney Hunt allows both women to be complicated, realistic people, and there's not a hint of mockery anywhere in the movie. Recommended with great enthusiasm.
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