My Writings
Review - Winter's Bone
Winter's Bone received the Grand
Jury Prize: Dramatic Film and the Best Screenplay Award at the 2010
Sundance Film Festival,and also received two awards at the 2010
Berlin Film Festival.
If you've ever wondered what the locals from 'Deliverance' do
outside the fishing season, then check out Winter's Bone - a tale of a family in
jeopardy, set in the Ozark mountains in the south of Missouri. Jennifer
Lawrence plays Ree
Dolly, a 16 year old forced to take responsibility for the homestead
and two younger siblings when her father goes missing. Her mother is no
help - she exists in a catatonic state - probably induced by the
crystal meth that the whole community seems to be producing, selling,
and using.
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Matters turn for the worse for the Dollys when the bail bondsman turns up and tells her that pop has missed a court attendance and the entire house and farm are up as collateral unless he shows up next time. Eviction and the splitting up of the kids to various odious relations is imminent, unless Ree can find her pop, dead or alive.
Forced to go out amongst the local hillbilly community proves dangerous due to family feuds and the effects of inbreeding. Dale Dickey is especially good as Auntie Merab. Ree gets threats, and silence, rather than help, until her uncle, the aptly named Teardrop (very well played by John Hawkes) finally breaks rank to help Ree, and we have the movie's best scenes, including a tense stand off with the local sheriff (Garret Dillahunt, also Comartie from 'The Sarah Connor Chronicles').
The film could have done with clearer dialogue as much of what was said was muffled, and also a more consistent soundtrack - and visually it was a let down. The opportunity to contrast the transient lives of the locals against the majesty of nature was not taken. Perhaps Ree's journey should have taken her further and further away from the homestead in search of the truth about what happened to pop, but intead we are asked to believe that the bond between the Dollys and the land is unbreakable, which did not ring true according to Debra Granik's direction or the way Ree Dolly's character was portrayed.
Rating : 6/10 Unconvincing
Review written by John Franklin : October 2010
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