Winter's Bone (2010)

3.5

DRAMA

U.S. Release Date: 06/11/10

Running Length: 100 Minutes

MPAA Classification: R

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Garret Dillahunt, Dale Dickey

Director: Debra Granik

Screenplay: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell

Cinematography: Gerald Brunskill

Music: Michael McDonough

U.S. Distributor: Roadside Attractions

Review by: Carter Moulton

06/17/10

Fresh off its Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Winter’s Bone screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival today. I was surprised to see only one screening of this film on the lineup, and in the smallest theater facility. All of those who attended received an honest hour and a half of storytelling. The film, shot entirely on location in the Ozarks of Missouri, is about Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old girl who is forced to take care of her younger sister and brother due to her mother’s sickness and her father’s run-ins with the law.

Watching this film from Scotland, I thought about how ugly this American setting was. Missouri has never looked so decayed, so decomposed. Ree’s clothes seem to fall apart as she walks through the woods, plastic playhouses and tractors rot in yards, and old grocery store coupons coexist with used mugs on countertops. The sky is always overcasted and the air frigid. Director Debra Granik’s vision of Daniel Woodrell’s novel is inspired and well executed.

Photo © Roadside Attractions

Jennifer Lawrence is phenomenal as Ree. Her dialect and demeanor are flawless as Ree struggles to track down her father to save her family. Her father, like all bad meth-cooking fathers, places the family’s home up as his bail bond and disappears. No one knows his whereabouts—so they claim—and there is a lot of he-says-she-says going on throughout the film. All Ree is interested in is proving that her father couldn’t make his court date because he is in fact dead. Not once does she give up or bask in self-pity.

Winter’s Bone comments on the negative aspect of social structures. All of the adult characters are fixated on gossip and therefore on their outside image. Finding snitches and punishing them is a daily routine. Ree must watch her words toward not only the police, but also toward her family and everyone she meets.

The most saddening scene comes when Ree, who’s been given a week to move out of the house, attempts to enlist in the Army. The camera lingers on her tattered, beaten face as she tells an officer her reasons for joining. The dialogue between the two is all at once dismal, inspiring and, most importantly, real.

A few accents don’t hold up, and a few takes of dialogue are inaudible or incomprehensible, but minor flaws aside, Winter’s Bone delivers both artistic and political messages about life in the hidden places of the world. The film is reminiscent of Wendy and Lucy: both are slow, gloomy, and atmospheric motion pictures with beautiful cinematography and powerful female leads. Granik’s film is certainly ugly—especially a scene involving a paddleboat and a chainsaw—but there’s a driving beauty within it. It starts and ends with Ree, and she’s definitely worth applauding for.