My Rating:
Winter's Bone was the final best picture nominee that I had yet to see, and I was looking forward to it. I believe a huge aspect of knowing if someone will like a film is what they know about the movie going into it. For example, I know all there is to know about Christopher Nolan, so I expected The Dark Knight and Inception to both be masterpieces. Or I know that Tim Burton always casts Johnny Depp and has a very specific style to his movies, so going in to The Nightmare Before Christmas or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I know what to expect. However, I have never seen anything by Debra Granik and only know bits and pieces about what to expect from Jennifer Lawrence and her performance. I personally think this is the best way to go into any movie, you have no expectations so you hold any negative judgement. However, not every movie is worth the isolation.
In Winter's Bone, Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) is a seventeen year-old girl searching for her deadbeat father in the rough, rural Arkansas society. She is the primary caretaker of the family, and unless she finds him in a few short days, her younger siblings will be left homeless in the middle-of-nowhere, USA. I don't know how accurately this film depicts the rural south (as I'm a northern city boy), but I'm going to guess that it's right on the money.
The acting in the film was worthy of an Oscar nomination (or two), but I'm not sure much more than that. Both Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes were fantastic; Lawrence played a much stronger and resilient girl than I've seen in a long time (including Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit), Hawkes played her morally torn rough riding uncle. The story was so-so, somewhat confusing in the details, but also not a hard script to catch yourself back up on. I did feel like it was a bit chopped up and very slow to gain any momentum, but once it got going, it was a freight train.
Southern hospitality is given a new meaning; the motives of most of the supporting characters are cold to say the least, causing some serious drama and suspense. Having a disc that skips is much less than ideal in those scenes where I was physically tense, waiting to see what came next.
The film's strong acting and intense suspense balanced where the script was otherwise weak. I don't think this will win any Oscars this season, Winter's Bone has some pretty tough competition across the board. My lack of knowledge of anything about the film wasn't helpful in this case, I don't think any positive expectations would have helped move the script along and faster.
Although it has it's flaws, the suspense in Debra Granik's latest film left me feeling chilled to the bone.
Released: September 2010
Length: 1 hr 40 min
Directed by: Debra Granik
Written by: Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini (Screenplay), Daniel Woodrell (Novel)
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt
Rating: R
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