Winter’s Bone

I had intended to see Winter’s Bone for a long time, and some video credit at Amazon.com finally gave me the nudge. I’m very glad I finally did; it’s an excellent film, and it well-deserves the accolades it’s received. Going in, I knew very little about it, except that it was a small, independent production, and that the acting was apparently very good.

Winter’s Bone is a hard movie to classify.  Oddly (or not), it reminded me most of Chinatown, in many ways, but mainly in the protagonist’s determination to find out what she needs to know, in the face of the clear knowledge it would be safer for her to leave it alone. Though it’s strange to think of a film with a starkly rural setting as noir, its ambivalent morality, unflinching protagonist, crime-laced plot and claustrophobic atmosphere would certainly push it in that direction for me.

Regardless of how you label it (or choose not to), the film is grippingly made. Its pace is slow, yet deliberate, and contributes to a sense of dread and hopelessness which ebbs and flows but never evaporates. Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is smart, stubborn and resourceful; on the other hand, at 17, she is often over her head, and left without recourse when she’s opposed by people who dismiss her for both her age and her gender. She’s easy to root for, and her emotions are clearly present, but tightly guarded.

John Hawkes, as Ree’s Uncle Teardrop, similarly gives a raw and naturalistic performance. Whenever he’s onscreen, he was worth watching sharply, building his performance on small details and nuance.

I would love to rewatch this movie on a screen better suited to it than my laptop, but even with the limitations I had, the composition and filming were dynamic and interesting. (I’m not sure if it’s Amazon’s fault, or my video card, but the contrast was hard to get just right, and the resolution was  bit fuzzy, even though I downloaded the film rather than streaming it.) The film was not afraid of lighting highs and lows, and director Debra Granik creates a very present sense of space. The setting seems both empty and cluttered, and the cold pervades as a motif leading up to what I would argue is the film’s climax.

It is something of a hat trick to make a film so unrelentingly bleak that leaves the viewer with a sense of hope, but Granik does manage it. Despite the fact that my predominant emotion during the film was something between fascination and dread, I was left oddly optimistic about Ree and her family, despite the huge challenges still left to them.

Winter’s Bone is an excellent argument in favor of the 10-slot Best Picture nomination rule change, a much better one than, say, An Education or District 9 (review forthcoming).  This film is truly excellent, beyond its standout acting or beyond an intriguing concept. Because of the sort of film it is, there’s no real chance it will win, but the nomination may find it a new audience, and is a way of recognizing an achievement that’s less conventional awards fodder than, say, The King’s Speech (much as I liked that movie as well).

With its dark story, intriguing visuals, and riveting performances, Winter’s Bone is well worth seeing, and I suspect would reward a second view richly.

Grade: A- Though I can understand how some might find the pace a bit slow, I felt it suited the film, and overall everything worked for me.