Ryan McNeil
Sometimes we find ourselves in a tough spot – in a position where we find ourselves saying “I don’t want to, but I will if I have to.” Usually when this happens, it’s because we’re doing it for people we love…people who might not be able to take care of themselves. This is the crux of the dark tale of WINTER’S BONE.
Our story is set in The Ozarks, where 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) lives. Her father has left, and her mother is incapacitated. Ree is all alone trying to look after her young brother and sister and keep everybody’s head above water. They have next to no money, even less food. They live the sort of life where you hang your laundry out to dry even in the dead of winter. Indeed, they have next to nothing, and they’re about to lose a big portion of what they do have.
Their father – charged with cooking crank and out on bail – has slipped off the map. This sends a bondsman to the house calling on Ree, and he informs her that her father put his house up as his bond. If he can’t be found within a week to appear before a judge, their meagre home and everything in it, will be seized.
This sends Ree on a quest through her gutter of a community, looking for her father. The problem is that everyone she talks to knows exactly what he was into (no stretch, since many of them are into it too), and they aren’t talking. Not even her closest relative, her uncle “Teardrop” (John Hawkes) will help her.
Unfortunately, Ree isn’t the sort of girl to take “no” for an answer. Thus she keeps asking questions, getting no answers, but getting a lot of threats. In the face of very palpable danger, she continues searching for what she believes is a very ugly truth. She and her family have very little…but there’s no way she’s losing what little they have left without a fight.
WINTER’S BONE is a slow walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We can tell that Ree doesn’t really want to keep going…keep asking questions…keep pressing her luck. Thing is, she has to. She and her family have been left with as close to nothing as one family can get. It’s unsettling to see her press the sort of people I wouldn’t ask for a match from, but her lack of alternatives leaves her with little options.
Jennifer Lawrence carries this film, with precious little of the story happening without her there. She taps into a delicate mix of desperation, frustration, delicacy, and anger. She has taken over the role of matriarch in her family, and we can sense a reluctant pride in the way she tries to care for her siblings, and teach them to fend all at once.
In a particularly telling moment, she catches a glimpse of her neighbours with a bounty of fresh meat, and if her eyes could salivate, they would. Seconds later, her younger brother seems to express what she’s thinking and suggests they go ask for a portion. Lawrence does an amazing about-face at this moment, and teaches her brother about asking and offering. It’s subtle moments like this that really make the performance.
Ree’s journey for truth has been called by some as “Hillbilly Noir”. I like the term, since indeed all the hallmarks are there. The hero is a loser, the story is one of betrayal, and there are more than one ambivalent bystanders. the film isn’t in black and white, but given the grim, dreary colour palette it damned well could be. It’s noir! The only thing missing is a femme fatale…but in a town like this, I’m a little afraid to see their excuse for a femme fatale.
While this film was difficult to watch, it was fascinating as it takes a very particular breed of community and shows how even though they don’t have much more than each other, they draw lines and decide for themselves who is worth helping and who is not. It’s a sad state of affairs that I’d like to believe is complete fiction, but I fear isn’t the case. An engaging, if upsetting film, and easily one of the best this year.