There's almost no chance I would have sought out "Winter's Bone" if not for the Academy giving out the nomination for best picture. "An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact." (shamelessly stolen straight from IMDB) Wait..no guns, violence, scantily clad nubile women??
Well. It's a great movie and might well walk away with the Oscar in 22 days or so. Jennifer Lawrence has a shot at best actress as well, I suspect, but she would be awfully young to get the nod. Her performance is much different then Portman's but it is compelling. Rather than the tug between good and evil with the vulnerability Portman had to portray, Lawrence plays Ree Dolly and shows great tenacity and courage. She doesn't carry the movie but she more than holds her own.
She needs to provide and protect her family of two sibling children and a mother who's sick, and will continue to be. Her uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes) can't or won't help. Everyone is telling her she has to stop looking, but that means no house for the family. With limited choices, she presses on grimly. The poverty of the film is almost violent. I've never been to the Ozarks and, while I hope there isn't this sort of poverty, I'm shaken to think there probably is.
This film is finely crafted with great pace and feel, as well as fine performances that seem completely believable (well at least to me who's never been within two thousand miles of that world.) There is a realism throughout and the film doesn't seem to embellish much. When someone gets beat up you don't see the acts you just see the results. The story is told without the need for slow motion action sequences.
Wonderful film and well worth seeking out.
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