Winter's Bone
Winter's Bone is a hillbilly murder mystery full of tension and with a look that is as bleak as the future of its main character Ree Dolly (sensational up and comer Jennifer Lawrence). She’s a Missouri seventeen year old whose natural beauty is never exploited -nor is there any need for it with such a fine performance. She has the weight of the world on her very young shoulders and she’s so desperate that the army seems to be a pleasant relief option. With no father and a catatonic mother she proudly and without complaint tends to her pre teen sister and brother, sometimes with the kindness of neighbours but mostly thanks to the old growth wood lot on their property which provides a meagre diet of deer and squirrel. Like so many in the community her father Jessop ran a meth lab but skipped on his bail after he got busted. The house was put up as collateral and when the bail bondsman comes to foreclose Ree takes up the hunt for Jessop. Unfortunately this runs her afoul of the local organized crime gang most of whom have blood ties to Ree. Genetics aside Ree’s persistence in her search has some painful and ultimately grizzly results. Kudos to director/writer Debra Granik for such brilliantly depressing texture not to mention casting all of which no doubt went a long way to capturing the Grand Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.