Movie Review - "Winter's Bone"

Is there anything better in a movie then having characters that seem absolutely real on every level? Characters that you may not ever meet but still, characters you can identify with ir you just know represent real people out there somewhere in this vast world (or country or city or town) of ours.

It continues to amaze me that in these times when every summer movie seems to cost well over $100 million to make, it is still all about the car chases, explosions and broken glass. Not one studio executive asks a writer or director to take the time to actually create characters that an audience can identify with. Oh, sure, they give us a few scenes at the beginning of every movie like that but you can bet your last kernel of popcorn that by the end of reel two this same supposed character we are supposed to know, supposed to identify with, is dodging bullets, out running fireballs and doing superhuman stunts.

Instead we have to look at art houses in our cities to find real characters in real situations in a real world. These characters inhabit films that have no chases, explosions or broken glass and, Heaven forbid may have to make the audience sit back and let the film unfold at its own pace leading to a conclusion that isn't blatantly obvious an hour beforehand.

Such a movie is Winter's Bone, a hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival and now slowly making its way around the country. If it happens to be within a reasonable distance I strongly suggest you seek it out as it is one of the best films of 2010 thus far.

The film tells the story of a family living in a dumpy house in the backlands in the Ozarks. 17-year old Ree (played beautifully by Jennifer Lawrence, a heretofore unknown to me who you can bet the ranch has a bright future ahead in major movies) is basically the head of the house. Her mother sits in a medical stupor most of the time while she has a younger brother and sister to feed. Her father has been away, first jailed for cooking meth and now on the run. Ree keeps the family going as best as she can living on welfare and accepting offers of food from neighbors who more than understand the situation but obviously aren't living high on the hog themselves.

We can tell this by the homes from the outside. One home appears to look worse than the next. The film was shot on location in an area that seems almost cut off from the rest of the world. The photography is done in dingy grays to add an even more depressing feel about the lives of these people. This is a poor area with poor people living the best they can on the resources available to them.

One day a policeman shows up to tell Ree that her father has skipped bail and has an impending court date the following week. He hasn't been seen nor heard from in weeks. Having met bond by putting up the house, the father must show up for his court hearing or the family loses the house and it is apparent they have nowhere else to go. Without even blinking Ree tells him matter of factly, "I'll find him." Thanks to her non-blinking, dead pan reaction we believe Ree. Jennifer Lawrence convinces us with an expression and probably didn't even have to say the line. We know what she has to do and we know she is going to give it her all.

Ree sets out to find her father, meeting some across the way she calls friends and some she calls family. The most central of those is her uncle Teardrop (nicknamed because of a tattoo of a teardrop just under his left eye), her father's older brother who has issues of his own. After his wife offers help, Teardrop reminds her, "I already told you once with my mouth to shut up." Teardrop offers little help at the moment but does advise her, as most of the others she meets will, to "drop it and go home." Of course Ree cannot.

Her journeys continue day by day trying to find people that don't want to be found and finding others that seem to know more than they care to admit. After finding an ex-girlfriend of her father's it becomes clear he may be hanging with the wrong crowd. Or worse. Or perhaps he is just on a bender and will make the court date. All of these possibilities will cross your mind yet the resolution, though totally believable, still surprises

Ree is a good sister. She protects her brother and sister in times of danger. She takes them hunting for squirrel (teaching her brother how to gut one) and teaches them how to shoot a gun (though you might wonder if that is for hunting or for protection just in case....). We root for Ree because she was dealt a lousy hand of cards and has bluffed her way to the winning pot on more than one occasion. We like her because we know how real she is and that makes us sad.

Winter's Bone was directed by Debra Granik (who also co-wrote the script) and she lets her film unfold slowly but never in a manner that the story isn't consistently moving forward. She makes us smile, laugh, wonder and fear. It's quite an accomplishment. Granik also makes sure that her supporting characters are all very real and not out of the world of Deliverance. Everyone seems to be bad but no one goes over the top. You fear because it's real. Had Granik gone over the top all believability would be lost.

I cannot stress enough the lead performance by Jennifer Lawrence. Only nineteen in real life she carries the movie like a seasoned pro and when she hurts we hurt and when she is happy we are happy. When she instructs her brother and sister about things we listen because she seems to have the knowledge of a woman twice her age. Many years the Academy has a tough time picking five performances for Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. If this is one of those years you can mark Jennifer Lawrence down now. She's that good.

So is the movie.