Winter’s Bone (2010)

17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) doesn’t have an easy existence. She lives together with her younger brother and sister and her mother, who has some mental issues, on the countryside of America. Life is already very hard, but when she hears that her father has put up their house in order to make bail it all becomes worse. If he doesn’t show up on his court date it will mean that her world will collapse.
The only thing she can do is to start searching for her father. Her environment is very hostile towards her, which only makes her search more difficult.

The locations in which the movie is set are beautifully shot. It’s a place where you will stand out if you drive a car instead of a truck. You can see if you look at the people who it’s also a place where everything is about survival and protecting each other. Education doesn’t seem to be a word a lot of people would know. Houses are surrounded by car wrecks and nobody is willing to help. It’s in that environment Ree is trying to find out where her father is.
Lawrence plays her role convincingly, you see that Ree is desperately searching and that she was forced to act above her age. She didn’t have a choice as she needed to take care of the rest of the family.

This movie appeared in quite a lot of top 10 lists last year and I can understand why people would include it. Personally I thought that the story sometimes just didn’t move along quickly enough and I was expecting a bit more depth to the story which would have pulled me in more. Despite not being not totally blown away by it, I have to admit that Winter’s Bone is a strong drama which a lot of people will enjoy.

Score: 8