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Along with SHOTGUN STORIES, FROZEN RIVER makes 2008 a good year for independent film debuts. An expansion of her short film, Courtney Hunt won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival for this original story set in the world of the working poor. Hunt crafts a thriller that surprises because it never loses sight of its central purpose — telling the stories of two desperate mothers. Melissa Leo and Misty Upham play these characters in remarkably subtle and touching performances.

Ray Eddy (Leo, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA) is the mother of a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old and her gambling-addicted husband has just run off with the down payment for the doublewide trailer. In the small New York town along the Canadian border where she lives, she can only get a part-time job at the Yankee One Dollar store. Out looking for her husband at the bingo parlor, she catches Mohawk Indian Lila (Upham, SKINS) driving off in her husband’s car. While Ray is trying to take back her car, Lila says she knows a human smuggler who will buy the car for more than it’s worth. Desperate, Ray bites and ends up involved in smuggling Chinese over the border via the frozen river that separates the Mohawk reservation on the U.S. and Canadian sides.

With the money too good to pass up, Ray returns to Lila wanting to do more jobs. Turns out Lila’s husband died on one of his runs, which spurred his mother to take their baby boy from the hospital. Lila has to hide out in a tree in her mother-in-law’s yard just to get a glimpse of her baby. Neither of the woman have any opinion on smuggling, only that in their current state the money is too good to pass up. But when asked to smuggle Pakis across the border, Ray dumps their precious duffle bag on the way just in case they’re the kind that want to blow stuff up.

Leo’s Ray and Upham’s Lila don’t debate or discuss their motivations, but we know exactly what they are feeling and thinking. These aren’t sophisticated women, but they want a better life for their kids. Leo’s brave performance is free of all vanity. She has the perfect face for a woman who hasn’t had the easiest life. It’s a performance that makes you sit up and wonder where this wonderful actress has been. Then you look at her resume and see she’s been in films and TV shows for decades. This award-worthy work makes so much over-the-top Oscar bait seem cartoonish. She makes us believe her character is real.

Hunt’s unobtrusive direction never gets in the way of the drama, but subtly adds to the bleakness and dread that increases as the story moves along. Her screenplay is one that slowly builds then hits a powerful turn that launches it into another realm. We quickly see that everything has been building to this point, which would be the climax in so many other films, but Hunt takes it further, leaving us gripped and guessing. Never once during the run to the conclusion does the plot go into overdrive. The pitch-perfect ending brings great fitting resolution that is strongly based on its themes and characters. A satisfying conclusion is all the more satisfying when we don’t see it coming.

Few films deal with the working poor or Native Americans, so this film has a captivatingly original setting right from the start. Along with the human smuggling, all the elements feel authentic, making the story fresh. Grounded in a well-crafted story and brought to life by great performances, FROZEN RIVER is a striking film debut. Hunt starts her feature film career in 2008 with one of the premiere films of the year.