Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here, with a caveat to my headline and review, both of which were written before I saw TOY STORY 3. But both are well worth seeing. Please continue...
In 2004, director Debra Granik gave the world one of the best films of the year, and almost nobody knew it. The movie was DOWN TO THE BONE, starring a relative unknown named Vera Farmiga in her first lead role, and it's a performance that still gives me chills to watch. And while many critics praised the film and Farmiga's work, the film got terrible distribution and the general public barely noticed it even existed. But now the world has a chance to make up for this glaring omission by seeing the equally gripping new film by Granik, WINTER'S BONE, based on the Missouri Ozark woods novel by Daniel Woodrell. Again anchored by one of the best female performances you will see this year--Jennifer Lawrence as 17-year-old Ree Dolly--WINTER'S BONE also benefits from its setting, which is not just a its own character but an overwhelming, often oppressive force that stands to smother Ree and destroy her world.
It's almost impossible to watch WINTER'S BONE without feeling like you've been through two or three levels of purgatory. When Ree's father goes missing after being released on bail, the police come to the Dolly home to tell Ree that the property was used as collateral and that unless the father surfaces, Ree, her two younger siblings and her severely mentally impaired mother will be thrown off the land. This community is one that takes care of its own, lives off the land, and doesn't have much use for traditional law enforcement. Ree tells the visiting officer (played by Garrett Dillahunt) that she will find her father, thus beginning a journey through the mountains and her extended family that uncovers just how deep into criminal activity her father and his kin really were.
At its core, WINTER'S BONE is a mystery, with a teenage girl as the lead investigator. She's perhaps too young to understand the implications of asking the questions she's asking to the people she's asking them to, or perhaps she does understand but is more concerned with her immediate family's well-being to care. One of the first people Ree approaches is her father's brother, Teardrop (John Hawkes), a drug addict who is far more intelligent than he lets on. He's also the scariest thing in this movie, and it's almost impossible to believe that Hawkes, who typically plays mild-mannered characters, pulls this off as convincingly as he does. Lawrence holds this film together, but Hawkes is the show-stopper. Ree is threatened and worse during the course of her search, and I don't think there's ever any doubt what her father's fate will turn out to be. What's more intriguing is that the mission shifts from finding him to proving he didn't run away (if it can somehow be proven that he's dead, the bail money will be returned). This is a puzzle that is never quite completes, but the picture still is very clear in the end.
With only her second feature (which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year), director Granik has again succeeded in diving headfirst into a culture and setting that does everything necessary to set the tone and establish atmosphere. It's an extraordinary work that sometimes feels like a kick to the gut that takes all the wind out of you with note-perfect performances that never lapse into cliche or stereotypes. The people and homes feel authentic, and as a result, the danger faced by Ree feels inescapably real. Complain all you want about how shitty the summer movie selection is this year; I couldn't agree more. But if you think quality is lacking at the multiplex, you need to look elsewhere. Good films are out there, and WINTER'S BONE is one of the finest, most memorable films you'll see this year.
-- Capone
capone@aintitcool.com
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