Winter's Bone

You can tell by the Title that this is going to be Cold and Hard. Add to that, Bleak, Despairing, Ruthless, and Sneering. There is Barely a Smile in this Study of the Backwoods with its Hypocrisy of Clannish Detachment. It is a Chilling Atmosphere that is Void of Sunshine and has Very Little to Offer in the Form of Empathy.

Outstanding Performances Inhabit this Unyielding Environment that is Captured by the Camera with its Unforgiving Truthfulness. There isn't much to Uplift the Spirit in the Film or the Audience. it is Realism through the Prism of Unflattering Faces and Unclean Milieus. It is a Slice of Life Without Spice.

When Our Heroine is asked by Her Uncle, offering Methamphetamine, "Have you gotten a taste for it yet?", She answers "Not so far." When She is skinning a Squirrel and Discards the Guts, Her little Brother asks, "Are we going to eat those?" She answers "Not yet."

This Demonstrates just how close to Total Surrender and Defeat things are. She is 17 and is Forced into a Situation beyond Her Years. She is Virtually Alone, on Her Own with Two Young Siblings Hanging in the Balance. This all is Interwoven with sort of a Mystery, but that is not what is going on Here. It is not so much a Story as it is a Reflection of Resolve and a Test of the Human Condition.

This one is not for Everyone and is an Independent Film that Tries Hard not to be Artsy but it is Despite Itself. The Characters, Dialog, Environment, and Story are Nothing if Not Beautifully Barren Americana.

Rarely do I have the privilege to see a film that is so raw, so real, that it takes over your senses and becomes much more than just a great movie - it becomes an experience or an event. "Winter's Bone" is the little movie of 2010 that does just that - it takes over your senses because what is happening on the screen is unabashedly and uncommonly real and not-Hollywood like that you become immersed in this rarely- explored world of the Ozarks.

Using a novel by Daniel Woodrell, director Debra Granik and co- screenwriter Anna Rosellini crafts a stark tale about a teenage Ozark girl who is forced to find her missing father before she and her two siblings get thrown out into the wild, due to dad putting up the house as a bond for his bail. The script is beautifully written, with very natural dialog throughout, you'll feel like you're there watching them. Every line has a meaning and is not without purpose, the main characters fleshed out in detail without excessive dialog overshadowing the character itself. The story is logical and extremely believable, and makes for a tense experience during the film. There are no clichéd Hollywood subplots and the story couldn't be more direct than a bullet to the heart. This is neo-noir at its finest.

I can't say more about the actors, because they are all excellent in their own unique way. Especially and most notably Jennifer Lawrence as the protagonist Ree Dolly. Now Ree's father is missing and mother gone sick, and she has to take care of her two siblings all by herself. To make matter worse she has been taking some flak because of her family name's notoriety due to her father's mistakes, but she remains steadfast and strong, unmoved like a rock. She learns how to be responsible and independent all by herself, and she is a tough character whose spirit shall never be broken, however hopeless and desolate her situation is (perhaps that is what built her character in the first place in absence of her parents). If Ree knows what to do, she does it. If she doesn't, she'll ask someone for help. She's being honest and not just smart. Keep in mind that this is an Ozark girl we're seeing on the screen, but there has very rarely been a hero(ine) that is so daring, brave and real, that the audience is firmly placed on her side as soon as trouble starts brewing. Ree has to face both the Ozark wilderness and the shady underground, both of which can cause serious trouble for her (and she does get into it). All Ree wants is to make sure her brother and sister have a roof to sleep under every night. To me, that selflessness and the love of her family that drives her makes her one of the most memorable and greatest female film heroine of recent times.

Which comes back to Jennifer Lawrence. She is absolutely terrific and perfect as Ree, a real knockout of a performance. She perfectly displays a balance of emotions and expresses her feelings with her face and not just explaining everything straight out of her mouth like so many hero(in)es. This is a true blue breakout performance for her and I honestly think she deserves many Best Lead Actress awards for her performance, and not just Best Breakout star. I've seen many movies and Lawrence's performance beats many previous Oscar winners' performances hands-down. Kudos also to other supporting actors, especially John Hawkes as Ree's uncle Teardrop, who delivers a guilt-ridden, burnt-out depiction of a nearly lost soul.

The Ozark landscape in the movie is beautiful to watch, but it emits a haunting, bleak presence. Something dark and mysterious but at the same time so simple and real. It is astounding the way Granik films these scenes to deliver the raw power and authenticity these images can deliver. It's like looking at a painting that comes to life. The interior of the buildings (and around them) are quite messy at times but it shows just how bleak the situation these people have to face every day. Not a pretty thought for us "normal" people, but then again what is normal when all Ree wants is to keep her family safe and nothing more? Kudos to the production designer and cinematographer for creating and/or choosing a unique setting that not all moviegoers can experience everyday. The atmospheric, ambient music pulls you in even further into this strange yet quietly dangerous world.

2010 has been a dull year for mainstream movies, but among the little known ones this could very well be the best one. I really hope the Academy doesn't overlook this like so many unfortunate movies before. It's a bit too soon for me to say but this may not only the film of the year, but also a true American masterpiece of a landscape that is nearly neglected by the public. A must see.

Overall rating: 94/100

This film tells the sad story of inbred, poverty-stricken, Missouri Ozark hillbillies trying to scratch out a living on poor soil and even worse personal resources, so it was no wonder meth production was embraced as a life-changing profit center that had the illegal potential to change their lives for the better. Their poor lives before meth had a certain dignity in the hard struggle for survival in an uncaring world that had passed them by or never allowed them to catch up, either or both, but cheap and dangerous drug production leading to fast but risky money took these unfortunates down a road that surely few would have chosen if they had a chance beforehand to see any of the personal and social harm it created in a society already at great risk of decent survival. What great harm it did was shown and acted brilliantly, as it pushed these already at-risk people lower down the chain of life than before and surely even lower than the wild animals they had to kill for food.

A young girl of 17, seeming older than her years, beaten up and beaten down, wary of those around her but needing their help, and with 2 young siblings and a helpless mother to care for, she learned that her drug-making, drugged-out father disappeared and missed a court date for a drug arrest, and the most important task of her life then became finding her father before they lost their meager home to bondsmen, as that sorry home place was all they had in the world but it was home and she intended with all her heart and soul to do whatever it took to keep it and her family together. The acting throughout was appropriately serious to deadly, with hardly even a smile to be seen, and left us thankful as seldom before for whatever our own lives give us compared to those in the story.

Such a grim and foreboding task the daughter had, with imminent harm threatening around every corner she turned and behind every door on which she knocked, even those of relatives. Determination can get you far, but only so far unless you get a few breaks, and that long quest for a decent break was what kept viewer's eyes glued to the screen until it all played out in the end as could be expected in that dire situation.

Bleak, stark, harsh, mean, cruel...all those tough adjectives were present in full force throughout her search, but present also was her eternal fire of human spirit and family duty that would never quit. When actual survival is at stake, this story showed well that some of us truly can find the right stuff to survive when no better choices are possible.

While I have seen many more entertaining film and certainly more profound, I cannot remember the last time I saw a film so realistic I felt I was there.

The very realism of "Winter's Bone" undercuts its pacing and dramatic impact. The film opens slowly and my wife nearly lost interest before the story engrossed her. Perhaps given my "country cousin" roots, I was immediately taken in. As a writer I was astounded at how many times I could not predict what would happen next. Yet, every scene flows naturally into the next.

While I found some of the dialog unintelligible, the "natural sound" so accentuated the film's atmosphere I didn't care. Certainly, I had no trouble understanding all the necessary interchanges.

While all performances are "pitch perfect," Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes certainly deserved their Oscar nominations and numerous awards. Likewise, writer/director deserved her Oscar nomination for writing. She should have received one for directing. In any event, she is one to watch and, in my opinion, a much better director than Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow.

There are no really "big" messages here. Nonetheless the "small" messages of humanity,community and personal honor shine like a beacon. I give "Winter's Bone" a "10".

Just back from seeing this at the Edinburgh Film Festival, and at the Q&A afterwards, the director, Debra Granik (refreshingly eloquent and well beyond the usual wanting to thank the world and his wife for being here at EIFF) described her film's subject matter as 'hard scrabble'. Although she wasn't referring to a Russian Roulette version of the popular literacy board game (now there's an idea for a film...), it was an evocative description of the tough slice of backwater American life served up here. The basic storyline – a teenagers plight to save her dependent family from imminent homelessness because of the actions of an errant and now-absent father – felt both authentic and compelling, as did the way the local community closed in around her, meting out both violence and support in equal measure.

Using grey and oppressive colour tones, the entire film is shot in a bleak wooded landscape, where the grizzle-bearded men all look like they've just left the set of 'Southern Comfort', and the straggle-haired, world-weary lined faces of the women add to the unspoken sense of the harsh reality of life here. I doubt they see many tourists in this neck of the woods, and at the same time, the film steers well clear of the 'and if they did, they'd probably eat them' stereotype. I liked the sparse and effective use of bluegrass-folky-type music, which cut through, and gave some relief to, an otherwise fairly unremitting sense of hopelessness.

Although the subject matter is an uncompromising reality-check to much of the superficial Hollywood drivel that fills our multiplexes, this is not a hard watch. At its' heart, it's a good story, well-told, with excellent central performances (particularly John Hawkes and Jennifer Lawrence) and an open-hearted sense of the local community here, in spite of their bread-line existence. 7/10.