The “alliance,” if you can even call it that initially, is especially fascinating because it is formed not by any soft sentiment or sympathy but on a common need. The two women know they are together in this illegal endeavor simply because they are both driven by economic desperation and there is no sharing of secrets about their separate troubles. Their very sparse conversations during the smuggling trips back and forth are all based on practicality or the dangers and the urgency of the situation itself. This is where the two actresses’ performances are so crucial and absolutely stunning because, almost entirely apart from the strictly pragmatic dialogue, they somehow manage to create an emotional entry into their growing turmoil and perhaps even a slowly growing bond.
This has been a good year for independent movies that cast character actors in lead roles and seek emotional subtlety over movie star value with The Visitor earlier and this film (and coincidentally, both films also grapple with the issue of immigration). Like Richard Jenkins in that other film, Leo’s face is probably more recognizable than her name, particularly to people who saw her on the TV show, Homicide: Life on the Street and in 21 Grams as Benicio Del Toro’s wife (look her up on IMDb). What she continually proves here even in the lead role is her willingness to play absolutely close to the bone and her consistent refusal to sacrifice authenticity for glamour. And she is matched scene for scene by Upham, who in some ways has the riskier challenge of making us look past her initial subterfuge and create a sense of empathy equal to Leo’s character.
The movie, which won the Grand Jury Prize in Sundance this year, is an impressive debut for writer/director Courtney Hunt. Beyond showing a keen visual eye for using natural light to paint a paradoxically, beautifully bleak landscape with her cinematographer, Reed Morano, she must have had an instinctive feel for this story reportedly based on real border smugglers living in upstate New York. In handling this material, she gains real power by mostly burying the emotions in the story’s situations rather than spelling it out in blunt dialogue. And the situations do not shy away from showing some feelings of prejudice that creep up as when Ray decides to dump what turns out to be an invaluable duffel bag belonging to the Pakistani couple, fearing “it might contain poison gas.”
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