Even though it's set in the Ozark Mountains, Winter's Bone isn't an intimate look at Branson and the Japanese violinist or Bald Knobbers. The film cuts deep into the soul of people scraping by in the wilderness on the Missouri-Arkansas border. The film follows Ree Dolley (Jennifer Lawrence), a 17 year old girl saddled with the responsibility of caring for a household populated by her two young siblings and a borderline catatonic mother. When her father vanishes after making bail Ree has to find him or his carcass to keep the bail bondsman from taking away the little sliver of mountains they call home. The problem Ree encounters, and is a constant in movies with an isolated population is the "code" that everyone is expected to follow. From stills to meth, the crime culture of the area stands in the way of Ree saving her family.
The thing about the way Jennifer Lawrence portrays Ree is in a way that contradicts itself. At times she is a confident young women that is focused on her mission at hand; at others she seems to be wandering aimlessly, wondering where her 17 year old head and heart should go. It's a sad tale in that the only way the father can help his family is by showing up somewhere as a corpse. It soon becomes apparent that Ree doesn't care if he shows up dead or alive. Hell, he was only half alive in their lives to begin with.
A finely made film by director Debra Granik, the key to Winter's Bone beyond Ree's story is the Ozark Mountain culture that you don't see in brochures for Silver Dollar City. For lack of a better term it's almost like a hillbilly mafia with cops in the pockets and beatings for the nosey. Granik reveals this world, a world beyond what we saw in Deliverance. This film redefines mountain people as more than the inbred hillbillies we city folk see. The woodsman has gotten smart.
This film is a great little gem that delivers a meaningful story filled with angst, but not the typical 17 year old angst we're usually treated to. You can't call it a coming of age story because Ree came of age a long time ago and is far beyond her odometer reading. Winter's Bone represents one obstacle in a life that's had plenty before it and will probably have many more after it. And we all know it.
