Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is not a pretty sight. One of the first shots of "Frozen River" shows her slumped in a chair in the early morning hours, and the camera moves slowly and meticulously over her features, ravaged by age and nicotine, the crisscross lines around her eyes testifying to what seems like decades of dreary drabness. And yet Ray radiates the particular power of a woman who relies on no one but herself, for sanity and survival.
Her small morning break over, Ray fusses over her small son's jacket because it's freezing outside and at the same time calls to her older, 15-year-old son to get ready for school. Mentally she's steeling herself to face the day and whatever tribulations it may bring.
"Frozen River" is a remarkable story about unremarkable people, struggling to live out their lives in the desolate, winter landscape in a border town perched on the St. Lawrence River between New York State and Quebec.