Winter's Bone (2010)

Based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell
Screenplay by Anne Rosellini & Debra Granik
Directed by Debra Granik

The Ozarks. A strange place to anyone that didn't grow up there. Lucky for Ree (Jennifer Lawrence), she did grow up there, and everyone knows her, and her father Jessup, a meth cooking criminal always on the run from someone.

With a catatonic mother, a little brother, and a little sister to take care of, Ree is none too pleased when Sherrif Baskin (Garrett Dillahunt) comes to tell her that her daddy Jessup is on the run again, and if he doesn't turn himself in for court in a week, Ree will lose the house to the bond company. She swears to Baskin that she'll find her daddy, even though he says he's already been looking.

So Ree goes off into a modern southern Odyssey, where she runs into shady characters, not the least of which is her uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes) who advises her roughly on what he thinks she should do, which is stay out of it. But Ree can't accept that, not with 3 mouths to feed and animals to look after.

So she continues digging, and like every good noir, she turns some corners that shouldn't have been turned, and winds up in more than one mess.

This is another beautiful film, in a haunting way. A lot of blues, every sky grey, the general look and feeling is a cold, sickly place where not many bright and happy things happen. But Ree sees the hardships of life and just sees a bigger ladder to climb, she's no stranger to trouble or tough times, even though more than once she should have been.

The story doesn't go where you want it to go, as it's not a classic movie set up. The end is underwhelming to a lot of people for specific reasons, which I understand, but I completely agree with the movie's ending. In that world, there is no good ending, just another day after this one.

Color me impressed, the two best performances by a woman this year were both by women under 21 years old in True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld and Jennifer Lawrence in this movie as Ree. Go figure.

John Hawkes finally steps up to show that he has raw power, charisma, and great acting ability, just like everyone who watched Deadwood already knows. 

9.1/10