Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Winter’s Bone, adapted by writer-director Debra Granik and screenwriter Anne Rosellini from the novel by Daniel Woodrell, is the engrossing story of a 17-yr old teenage girl’s plight to save her family by locating her missing father in the bleak and destitute backwoods of the Ozark’s Mountain.

In an era dominated by weak female characters, Ree Dolly comes off almost as an anomaly. She (Jennifer Lawrence) is a 17 year-old Ozark Mountain girl who has to take care of her near-comatose mother and her younger brother and sister. Life is tough and quite hopeless for these mountain people and they barely subsist on hunting and the kindness of their neighbors. As the movie starts, she learns from the sheriff (Tate Taylor) that her wayward and drug-dealing father has disappeared after putting up their house up as his bail, leaving the family on the verge of being evicted if he doesn’t turns up dead or alive within a week. The resourceful and mature-beyond-her-age Ree sets out to find her missing father so they don’t lose the very little things the family owns. This forces her to confront so-called friends and distant relatives, dangerous and terrifying people who have resorted to being on the wrong side of the law to survive.

Shot on location in Missouri, Winter’s Bone offers an incredibly bleak depiction of life in the Ozarks. The haunting cinematography by Michael McDonough is incredibly dark, grey and grimy and gives the oppressive feeling of cold and decaying desolation that you would find in a Cormac McCarthy novel. This film cannot really be categorized as a thriller because the story really works primarily as a mystery with each piece of the puzzle leading to the next. However, it sometimes feels like one as Granik was very effective at ratcheting up dread and tension in a few key scenes. Danger lurks everywhere for Ree as asking about her father “is the kind of question that gets you eat by hawgs or wishing you had been.” Undoubtedly, everyone around her wants her to forget about him but what is she to do? There is no happy ending in this movie, no such thing can be expected in such bleak conditions but it manages to leave you on a hopeful note.

Jennifer Lawrence’s star-making performance in this movie has already generated a strong buzz for a potential Oscar nomination. Her resourceful, fearless, yet utterly authentic Ree is the most impressive female character in years and she carries the movie from beginning to finish. At times, she betrays the innocence a child her age should still have but most of the time, she is mature beyond her age because she has to in her unforgiving world. What has Ree been through during her short life and would she have survived if she was a delicate, innocent and naive creature that most other actresses would have ended up playing? Even after getting beaten to a pulp by neighbors, she doesn’t cry. “Help me,” she says. “Or kill me.” There is a dignity and stoicism about her because one has nothing to lose when she owns nothing and much of it is communicated non-verbally — that’s talent.

The supporting cast is highlighted by a strong performance by John Hawke who plays Teardrop, Ree’s drug-addicted uncle with a heart. Hawke who has played in numerous comedies is completely different here. He is threatening, unpredictable and not someone you would like to hang out much with. The rest of the cast is mostly comprised of unknown acting veterans and locals giving the film another layer of authenticity. The beauty here is that all the characters come off as humans and real, never exaggerating their faults or way of life like so many movies about “hillbillies” have done.

A hauntingly bleak portrayal of poverty, Winter’s Bone is an unsettling and visually arresting film powered by a star-making performance from Jennifer Lawrence.

B+

(8/10)

Lesson of the Day: Hillbilly drama at its best

Notes: Rated R for some drug material, language and violent content, 100 minutes.