Frozen River

This movie was released in 2008, carries an MPAA rating is R for language and has a length of 97 minutes.
The movie plot centers around an Indian (Mohawk) coyote who smuggles illegals across the St. Lawrence. This is accomplished by driving back and forth between the Canada and Mohawk Reservation in upstate New York. In this region the Mohawk tribe is contiguous, and they issue passports in conflict with federal authorities. The main character is a poor white mother of two boys, and husband of a degenerate gambler and has taken off with the money she had saved to get them a new insulated double wide. Because the dirt bag husband is gone with the money Ray needs $4k in the worst way to cover the down payment on the new double wide. By this Ray is primed for her accidental introduction to smuggling people. Being a good way to make big money fast, the mother makes extra risks that end badly.
The actors were.....

• Melissa Leo plays Ray Eddy, poor New York version of white trash, mother of two boys, left high and dry by her gambling addicted husband. Leo looked familiar throughout the movie and when I did a little searching and found out why, she has been all over television for the last 25 years. She, Leo played one of the regular detectives in the police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street" in the part of Det. Sgt. Kay Howard.
• Misty Upham play Lila Littlewolf, an Indian woman acquainted with trafficking in transporting aliens across the Canadian border.
• Charlie McDermott plays Ray's oldest son Troy J. 'T.J.' Eddy.
• Michael O'Keefe plays Trooper Finnerty, we've seen O'Keefe in other reviews, his repertoire goes back to Caddyshack.
• Mark Boone Junior plays Jacques Bruno, commonly plays the bad man in movies and television, no different here, except with canuck accent.
• James Reilly plays Ricky Eddy, Ray's younger son and generally sweet kid. In real life Reilly is his movie brother's cousin.

I give this movie a rating of 43 of 50.

• Character Development, 10 of 10, Ray Eddy plays an weather worn down on her luck mother who by misfortune begins on a path to crime, later caught in crime she commits an act of selflessness and takes on the responsibility for the debt so that her unfortunate accomplice can care for her own toddler and Ray's boys.
• Screenplay, 8 of 10, not a great deal of dialog, but minimal talk speaks volumes.
• Acting, 9 of 10, Leo does a great job as the down on her luck mother. Upham also plays an interesting injun with deep seated issues.
• Photography, 7 of 10, very simple, limited in cramped quarters gives the distinct feeling of winter contrasted by the wide open sensation of driving across a frozen river in middle of the night.
• Plot, 9 of 10, UNIQUE.

It's easy to see how this movie won at Sundance and was nominated for two Oscars.