Winter's Bone

One film that seems to be getting a fair share of critical notice at the moment is Winter's Bone, an indie crime-drama that focuses on a dirt-poor community sequestered in the Ozarks. Young actress Jennifer Lawrence is the main reason for this focus, delivering a central performance that never once feels false or unrealistic, and playing an underdog character in a very tough situation. Looking very much like a no-budget docudrama shot on handheld digital cameras, the film manages to capture a stark kind of beauty in a harsh rural setting, following Lawrence's character as she explores the limits of her existence.

Ree Dolly (Lawrence) is the eldest daughter of a catatonic mother and a missing father. Only 17 years of age, she spends her time looking after and teaching her two younger siblings, eking out a life with no money and no food. The local sheriff (Garrett Dillahunt) comes calling to inform Ree that her meth-cooking father put up their house for bond and is now nowhere to be found. Ree must find her father if she and her family are to remain in their house, and so she sets out into the unfriendly Ozarks community to track him down. She doesn't figure upon coming up against a code of silence though, and must draw upon her inner resolve to ensure her family's survival.

The plot is sort of structured around a quest format. It unassumedly starts with Ree asking her neighbours about her father, but it is a journey that will test her, and as she goes further and further down the rabbit hole the filmmakers peel away the layers that hide the hard truths that inform this community's instinct for self-preservation. A big part of Winter's Bone is it's exploration of the culture of the Ozarks region - a hostile landscape of secretive, self-reliant people with their own laws and their own brand of justice. Leftover mountain-man traditions mingle with modern pauperism and the drug trade... these are an isolated people who have been given absolutely nothing by the world, and so they give very little in return (or even to each other).

The understated script touches of themes of blood feuds, inter-familial ties (inbreeding... though this word is never actually said it still informs a lot of the character dynamics), gender roles and dead-end futures. The mystery at the centre of the script (the whereabouts of Ree's father) is really nothing more than a contrivance that allows the film to explore this insular and hardened community. Another thing that keeps Winter's Bone interesting is the way that it plays against certain cultural assumptions that the viewer may have - this cold reality is a place seldom visited by film. As much as the Ozarks undeniably contain more than just meth-addicts and distrustful hillbillies, it's this impoverished aspect that begs for examination and gives Winter's Bone it's fascinating drive.

DIRECTOR: Debra Granik
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Debra Granik and Anna Rosellini, based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell.
KEY ACTORS: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Sheryl Lee, Casey McLaren, Dale Dickey

RELATED TEXTS:
- Daniel Woodrell's novel Winter's Bone, one of eight 'country noir' crime-novels he has written about the Ozarks region of Missouri.
- Debra Granik's previous film, Down to the Bone, also deals with drugs and struggle-street poverty.
- The isolated winter setting and themes of crime and poverty were also used by another recent understated indie drama, Frozen River.
- The Australian film Samson and Delilah involves a similar subtext of hopelessness. It also features an isolated poverty-stricken community with issues relating to culture and identity.

AWARDS
Academy Awards - nominated Best Film, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Golden Globes - nominated Best Actress - Drama (Lawrence).
Independent Spirit - nominated Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Lawrence), Best Supporting Actress (Dale Dickey), Best Supporting Actor (Hawkes), Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay.
Sundance Film Festival - won Grand Jury Prize and Best Screenplay.