Film (2010)
Directed by Debra Granik
Based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell
Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
With Jennifer Lawrence (Ree Dolly), John Hawkes (Teardrop), Kevin Breznahan (Little Arthur), Dale Dickey (Merab), Lauren Sweetser (Gail), Tate Taylor (Mike Satterfield), Garret Dillahunt (Sheriff Baskin), Sheryl Lee (April), Shelley Waggener (Sonya)
Kendall Square Cinema, Cambridge, MA
This is a tough-minded study of dirty business, and tribal tight-lippedness, in Ozark hillbilly country.
A seventeen-year old girl, Ree (Jennifer Lawrence), is prematurely saddled with the responsibility of her family, and put to a timebound challenge in order to keep it in one piece. Her mother is psychologically impaired, her father is AWOL, and the bank is knocking at the door. The mystery of the father’s whereabouts provides the underlying impetus: Ree must find him to keep the bank from repossessing the family home.
In looking for him, the girl, finely and austerely played by Jennifer Lawrence, encounters all sorts of mean stuff.
Part of that mean stuff comes from her uncle, Teardrop (John Hawkes), whose role is a creepy threat, then a dramatic pivot. Hawkes’ modulations in the development of the character are carefully done. He paints the character in grim tones, but it is shaded and has depth.
The plot is dark, but the vividness of Ree’s determination provides the light in the wilderness. She’s great, but the film gives no substantial sense about where her reserves come from. The force of her quest is driven by circumstance, but we remain in darkness, as much as in awe, about what makes the rest of her tick.
Sometimes people of great character and resolve emerge from the most unfortunate circumstances – but often there is at least some clue about why they do so. In this sense, Winter’s Bone is bit more of a vignette than a character study. Though we admire Ree for rising to the occasion, we only get slim hints about why, besides circumstance, she does so.
In addition to this, the script leaves a fair amount of plot clarification up to the viewer. Bleak encounters follow one another in quick succession, and it is not so obvious who is who and what is going on. By the end, the general drift becomes clear, but I could have used a little more guidance along the way.
It is dark, but the film is consistent and well done overall.
The Potato Eaters by Vincent van Gogh.
(from The Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
Dark, but a masterpiece.
The crystal meth theme underlying the plot may not be clear to all who see the film: it is useful to know that the quaint old moonshine stills of years past have evolved in recent decades in chemically new and economically profitable directions. Winter’s Bone vividly and painfully shows how harsh and deadly is the admixture of new drugs and old backcountry ways.
– BADMan
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