Winter's Bone is a noirish little drama about contemporary Missouri hillbillies and the methamphetamine cottage industry that sustains them.
At 17, Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) has more than her share of responsibilities. She also has one big problem: Her father is a criminal -- although that's hardly a distinguishing characteristic in their area of the Ozark Mountains. The problem is that he appears to have skipped out on his bail bond, which means Ree is going to lose the family house. She's the sole support of two younger sisters and a mother who's almost catatonic, and the house is all they have left.
You'd imagine that finding her dad wouldn't be all that tough, given that all the locals are vaguely related to her, but Ree can't find anyone who knows where her father might be. The people she's asking are both relatives and criminals, and the hostility that first greets her efforts to find her father quickly escalates to violence. Her search brings her into contact with a variety of interesting and fairly terrifying characters, including her Uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes) and a woman named Merab (Dale Dickey), who is married to the one guy all the locals fear. This is a crowd where almost everyone seems shy a full set of teeth or fingers.
From the beginning, Ree is on guard, told that asking about her father "is the kind of question that gets you eat by hawgs or wishing you had been." Despite being warned, lied to and put off, Ree persists until she finds the truth she's after.
The superb Winter's Bone is created out of dread and tension, and for all that you admire what Ree is trying to do, the movie is endlessly anxiety-provoking. The locals and the sheriff engage with such immediate friction that they can barely stand still around one another. The suspicion and malice that greet Ree at every turn are palpable. It's scary.
And it's visually arresting. From scenes of Ree frying potatoes in bacon fat to discussions of deer stew and squirrel meat, the combination of poverty and insularity that defines this particular socio-economic group is quietly and carefully established. In the midst of natural beauty, people pave their front lawns with junked cars and garbage, and Winter's Bone is thick with unsettling images of decay and desolation. It's like 90 minutes of Shelby Lee Adams photos.
Winter's Bone won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year, and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to co-writers Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini. The film also won two top prizes at the Berlin International Film Fest.
(This film is rated R)
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