WINTER’S BONE 3.5***
This film tells the sad, harsh story about some of the poverty-stricken people living in the Missouri Ozark’s back country who are trying to scratch out a living on poor soil and even worse personal resources. So it is no wonder that the making and selling of meth is embraced by some as a way to make money and get by. Their poor lives before meth had a certain dignity in the hard struggle for survival in an uncaring world that had passed them by or never allowed them to catch up, either or both . What great harm the meth business does is shown and acted brilliantly, as it pushes these already at-risk people lower down the chain of life than before.
A young girl of 17, Dee Dolly, having to be much older than her years, beaten up and beaten down, wary of those around her but needing their help, and with 2 young siblings and a helpless mother to care for, she learns that her drug-making, drugged-out father has disappeared and missed a court date for a drug arrest. The most important task of her life then becomes finding her father before they lose their meager home to a bondsmen, … her father put up the home as security for the bond. As sorry as the home place is, it’s all they have in the world and she intends with all her heart and soul to do whatever it takes to keep it and her family together. As the story moves forward through this drug subculture, the pride, family loyalty, code of honor and toughness of the people are revealed.
Such a grim and foreboding task the daughter has, with imminent harm threatening from around every corner and behind every door on which she knocks, even those of relatives. Determination can get you far, but only so far unless you get a few breaks, and that long quest for a decent break is what keeps the viewer's eyes glued to the screen. Bleak, stark, harsh, mean, cruel...all those tough adjectives are present in full force throughout her search, but present also is her eternal fire of human spirit and family duty that never quits.
The cast is perfection. And while none of these folks would be welcome for dinner at my house, they are so convincing in their greed and fear that actress Jennifer Lawrence's perfectly drawn heroine stands out vividly with her embodiment of hope and justice. What Lawrence does as Ree Dolly is a minor miracle. Standing before some very scary people (many of whom are blood relatives) makes you wish you could be like her. In Ree, through the acting of Lawrence, we have one of the strongest female characters recently seen, one who, by her sheer will, suggests what could be accomplished if all of us could live each day as if our life depended on it.
This is an Independent film, so you’ll have to seek it out. It has a “R” rating primarily due to the language, and violence…. It’s a soft “R” ..could just as easily been a “PG-13”

Clark