The backwoods are often the setting to a horror film. It’s in these back woods that backward hicks roam about strangling stranded teens and mutilating their corpses in some fashion. What a sense of imagination we all have. There aren’t anymore monsters in the backwoods than there are in the city, but through the power of film and other forms of media, we get an uneasy feeling when we’re roaming in mother nature’s backyard. There can certainly be evil deep in those woods, but something far more palpable than a man running around in a hockey mask. The evil I speak of is one of neglect and despair. When watching Winter’s Bone this notion will become all too apparent, as director Debra Granik throws us deep into the Ozarks, where homes are dilapidated and drugs act as a form of currency. It’s a place where humans behave like animals. Not out of choice, but sheer necessity. Much like how nature has crafted the rugged landscape, she helps carve the people who reside in her bosom. One such person is Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence),a 17 year old girl who has the weight of the world on her shoulders. With her father on the run from the law, Ree leads her poverty stricken family one day at a time.
Her mother, incapacitated for unknown reasons, sits in her chair staring aimlessly ahead while Ree attends to the survival of her little brother and sister. It’s a burden, but one that Ree has no problem bearing. She hunts, she cleans, and she gathers wood to assure survival for her family. What we have is a teenager being forced to live in an adult world. It’s a reality that’s about to get more rancid as Ree finds out that her father, who’s facing Meth related drug charges, has a court date that he must appear for. If he doesn’t, per his bond, the house Ree’s family resides in will become property of the state, and the Dolly family will be forced to seek refuge somewhere in the barren climate of the Ozarks. Needless to say, if Ree can’t find her father, the family’s chance of living uncomfortably in the very least, becomes certain death. Strong willed and determined to find her father, Ree searches the land for a man no one’s seen. To make matters worse, with her father being heavily involved with the local crime scene, Ree dives into the business of characters who probably have the mind to slit her throat and let her die amongst the hope they buried years ago.
From one crime virtuoso to the next, Ree works her way searching for the smallest clue to her father’s whereabouts. At times she’s politely rejected, others she’s harassed and even assaulted, but she isn’t deterred. She continually gets up, wipes the blood from her mouth, and marches on with one end in sight. It’s in this gritty determination that Winter’s Bone actually instills a sense of hope within the decay it surrounds Ree and her family with. It’s not that a brighter future is guaranteed for this family if Ree finds her father, but much like when a person enters rehab for some type of addiction, there’s the potential that things can get better. And as you can imagine, Ree finds herself crossing paths with an assortment of amoral characters who test the strength that her outer shell exudes. Needless to say, Ree’s physical bravado is synched with an inner calm that is unmatched by the socioeconomic climate around her. Embellishing this force of a character is Jennifer Lawrence, who practically owns the film. With much of the film’s emotion and strength lying on her shoulders, Lawrence comes off as a savvy veteran who embraces her character’s rugged environment and emulates it from within. She walks around, getting down and dirty, as she and director Granik make Ree a woman of the woods. For as much as I’m making a big deal out of Lawrence’s ruggedness, her tenderness and heartfelt desperation are what drew me in.
With each passing moment, Lawrence understands that Ree’s life is getting closer and closer to being excruciatingly worse. So, she marches on with a sense of purpose buried within her eyes. There is without a doubt of sense of urgency that propels the story forward, but it also makes us aware of the lengths that Ree is willing to go to. Undoubtedly this makes us far more willing to walk the harrowing road that lies ahead of the Dolly family. Where most films make us cringe at the thought of roaming the 'backwoods', Winter’s Bone makes us willing to venture into the ghastly environment simply because there’s a character worth following into the abyss.
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