Salt Lake Tribune Review
The thriller “Winter’s Bone,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, discovers in the Ozarks — the backwoods region that straddles the Missouri-Arkansas border — the same detailed and doom-riddled atmosphere that the detective author Raymond Chandler found in Los Angeles and filmmaker
Sidney Lumet continually finds in New York.
Director Debra Granik, working with co-writer Anne Rosellini, digs deep into the hardscrabble life of this region. Filmed on location in Missouri, the movie is steeped in all aspects of life there — from the rusted icebox on the porch to the living-room musical jam sessions.
But this is no dry travelogue. Granik and Rosellini use the Ozarks backdrop and Daniel Woodrell’s novel to create a riveting thriller centered on one intense young woman.
That woman is Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), a 17-year-old who’s the only one holding her family together. She raises her two siblings and tends to her ill mother, while her no-account father faces charges for cooking meth. The sheriff (Garrett Dillahunt) informs Ree that Dad put up the house to the bail bondsman and then skipped bail — meaning that unless Dad shows up for his court date, the family will lose their home.
Ree goes to her uncle, Teardrop (
John Hawkes, from “Deadwood”), asking what he knows about her daddy’s whereabouts. Teardrop tells Ree to let it alone — but when Ree presses him, Teardrop responds with a violent threat. It’s an early moment that shocks the audience more than it shocks Ree. She, apparently, has come to expect such things in her world. We, the audience, are strangers here, and only at this moment do we start to understand the lengths to which Ree’s kin will uphold their code of silence.
We soon learn how determined Ree is to protect her part of the family and keep a roof overhead. There’s a powerful scene late in the film where Ree meets an Army recruiter (played by an actual Army recruiter), showing how desperate she is to find an escape from the Ozarks while still bringing money home for her family.
Playing Ree, Lawrence emerges as an instant star. She imbues Ree with grit and determination, as the character risks her life digging into her father’s disappearance. (Granik made a similar discovery of a great actress with her earlier film, the 2006 Sundance hit “Down to the Bone,” which featured
Vera Farmiga as a cocaine-addicted suburban mom.)
Michael McDonough’s rich cinematography bores into the dark corners of Ree’s existence. Meanwhile, the movie gets an added boost of authenticity from the constant stream of music, much of it by local performers — notably Marideth Sisco, a soulful singer who was also a production consultant on the film.
“Winter’s Bone” takes us to a place we would never want to go and allows us to feel as if we have been there. Isn’t that why we go to movies?
- Sean P. Means
Loss, Suspicion and Kinship
Submitted by: itsahowl
Many sins are forgiven through bonds of kinship, but not all, and that seems to be a main theme of this riveting drama set in the Ozarks. Being born and raised in the South I am all too familiar with the poverty and hopelessness that still exist in rural areas and director Debra Granik gets the atmosphere right, though it is exaggerated at times for effect. Of particular note is how close to the surface violence lies and how loyalties are tested against a code of conduct so strict that the penalties of law pale in comparison.
Jennifer Lawrence is excellent as the lead, a strong female character who is unwilling to give up or give in, to the dominant male culture that sees her intrusion into the story's events first as an oddity, then as a threat and utimately with a grudging respect. And John Hawkes portrayal of her uncle "Teardrop", may be the best supporting performance of the year.
I really hope this film doesn't get labelled as a festival favorite, which often relegates a movie to virtual obscurity as mainstream audiences dodge it for more familiar hollywood formulas. This is a fascinating story that deserves a wider release.
The rundown: The atmosphere of the Ozarks penetrates director Debra Granik's tense thriller, about a teen (Jennifer Lawrence) seeking her lost daddy. 100 minutes. (SPM)
Synopsis:
Great review! Thanks for not giving away too much of the story line. I wish Sean P. Means would write his reviews in such a manner. For me, giving away too much of the film lessens the movie's impact. I prefer a general statement about what's the movie contains as opposed to a complete outline. [ Report Abuse ]