“Winter’s Bone”

Reveiwed 17 June 2010 by Ted Faraone

Three stars out of five; $8.00 ticket on a scale of $0 to $12.75.

NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT

“Winter’s Bone,” the latest from helmer Debra Granik, who also shares screenwriter credit with Anne Rosellini, is proof that a great many more marginal films make it to the film festival circuit than do really superb movies.  “Bone” had no fewer than 13 film festival screenings (beginning with Sundance) before going into limited US release on 11 June.  It’s not that “Winter’s Bone” is terrible.  It isn’t.  It’s just not great -- despite some excellent performances by actors who are not household names.  The problem is this:  The 100 minute pic has not one joke.  Zero comic relief.  It’s a downer among downers.  Studio characterizes it as a drama and thriller.  It’s more of a soap opera about hillbillies.

Based on the eponymous novel by Daniel Woodrell, pic is set in the winter in the Ozarks in a community where the local family tree is a tap root.  There is not one yard without piles of used tires.  Groundskeeping is not the local strong suit.  Drugs abound -- crack and cocaine seem to be the most popular.  Just about every man is in the drug trade, and every woman either supports him or holds her nose -- except for our protagonist, the 17-year-old Ree Dolley (Jennifer Lawrence), a plucky kid who cares for her two younger siblings and mentally ill mother in the absence of her dad.

Plot is a series of revelations sparked by a visit from a bail bondsman to Ree’s house.  It seems that daddy has posted it as bond and has failed to appear in court.  You know the rest.  Ree sets out to find daddy and save the family homestead, if you can call it that.  She is stymied every step by hillbilly omerta.  She even takes a beating for her pains, of which Granik graciously shows only before and after shots.  Daddy, it is revealed, had turned snitch and was murdered -- handed over to the local mob by the law.

There is only one, unintentionally funny scene in “Winter’s Bone.”  It occurs when Ree is given proof that daddy is dead in order to save the homestead (a dead guy cannot show up for a court date).  It involves a chain saw.  The screening audience laughed out loud.

Lawrence is very proficient for a 19-year-old.  She and John Hawkes as her coke-addicted uncle “Teardrop” carry pic.  She convincingly conveys the determination and raw courage to take on people who greet relatives with shotguns.  Hawkes excels in the transformation from know-nothing to avenging angel.  Special mention goes to chainsaw wielding Merab (Dale Dickey) and to Ashlee Thompson and Isaiah Stone who play Ree’s siblings.  Lawrence holds her own with kids and animals. 

Lensing by Michael McDonough is more than sufficient, especially in the washed out grayness of Ozark winter.  Night shots largely work, although the chainsaw scene, which is shot day for night, would have benefited from a few more dollars.  (Pic’s budget is estimated at $2 million.)  Score (Dickon Hinchliffe) has a few over-the-top moments, but otherwise does not intrude.  The Ozark accent, however, takes some getting used to, and here sound recording could have been a bit better.  Granik and Rosellini seem to have a thing for pics with “Bone” in the title.  Both worked on the low budget 2004 feature, “Down to the Bone.” 

“Winter’s Bone” is rated R, probably for the chainsaw scene and another in which a just shot squirrel is skinned and disemboweled.  It need not be.  It lacks both nudity, sex, and a lot of bad language.  Its most violent scenes are left to the imagination.

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