Winter's Bone (2010)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

As someone born and raised in that area (my family has been here over 200 years now) it is insanely realistic. The clothing, the culture, and the desperation that comes from generations of extreme poverty and hopelessness.

A film that resonates with the audience comes across very few times that sticks with you. This is a movie that is driven by it's character's and the plotline. A poverty stricken young girl who is stuck with a ill mother and raising her young siblings. It is a mystery and drama based film with Jennifer Lawrence at the helm as it's lead playing Rhee the oldest of three kids.Set in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri Rhee is forced to try and keep her family home when her drug making father disappears. As the story develops we see the raw emotion from these characters. A truly telling story of how poverty stricken the families are in these areas, it's about survival and family at it's core. Winter's Bone won several awards, including the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also received four 2011 Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress for Lawrence and Best Supporting Actor for John Hawkes who played Teardrop.A rich film full of entertaining value and the audience is delivered a satisfying story. Jennifer Lawrence in her 1rst true major role that showcases her talent. A solid 7 out of 10

Winter's Bone is about a girl, Ree, who has to take care to her brother, her sister and her mother, that has to face the most challenging time of her life when shes told that they're gonna loose their house. Sounds good, isn't it? Well, let me tell you in advance: It isn't that good. If there's something clear about this film, it's that this is probably the best Jennifer Lawrence performance to date. The way she makes the viewer believe in how Ree feels, to see the realness in it, is astounding. Really, if you still doubt about her acting skills this is a way to prove you wrong.And that's all the good about this movie, because the plot is just bad. Is frustrating how plain is in the first two thirds of the film, how it starts getting more intense in the third... and how anticlimactic is in the end. It literally left me asking "wait, is this done? This is the end?". It's a shame, but I can't find any good in this movie's plot. Such a wasted opportunity.If you are looking through Jennifer Lawrence filmography and have some spare time, maybe watch it. If else, it's just not worth it.

I sat down to watch this film not really sure what to expect. I am personally a big fan of Jennifer Lawrence and I understood from critics that Winters Bone put her on the map, in Hollywood and I wanted to see where her career took off. As the films opening scene came into focus, my eyes were greeted with a bleak, grey view of a mountainside. Very little grass, the skeletons of caravans that once were and rubbish scattered everywhere, filled my vision. Soft American country music accompany the mid shots establishing the setting of the movie, and immediately I understood that I was looking at a poor family that lived outside of normal civilisation who fended for themselves. Within minutes, Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) walked outside to hang the washing up and help, who I assumed where her siblings, fix some toys. I was instantaneously encaptured by this small glimpse at the other side of the world, the other side of society, that the brochures don't include, and I was shocked overall at how badly some people have it. It made me feel like a horrible person just watching them suffering and not offering help or means of help. This film was raw and despite the telling title, I couldn't get over the almost dystopian society I was watching, where everyone knows everyone, blood relations meant a lot, to a lot of people, and even the police of the town knew there were some that were above the law. I felt personally responsible for the safety of Ree and her family, not thinking that a 17 year old girl could carry such a weight on her shoulders, but so helpless to aid her as the film progressed. There are also several moments throughout the duration of the film that I found quite harrowing to witness, not thinking that anyone should have to be put through. The surroundings and the people seemed to work together to create, this almost black hole of despair and bone chilling cold that engulfed everything that moved throughout, and I felt everything that Ree felt, wincing as characters grabbed her throat, and threw hot liquid in her face. Although the age of Jennifer Lawrence's character was 17, she was forced to be an adult in her actions and priorities, but when something bad happened to her I felt that she was still a child, and that she was lost and needed guidance from an adult.Lawrence played Ree, to such a degree that I if I didn't know that she was an actress, I wouldn't personally have been able to determine her from someone who actually lived in Missouri in a similar predicament. The cinematography was very effective at creating a desolate landscape, where you couldn't really imagine anyone living there, and seeing what the characters were wearing, and the surroundings they were in, made me feel cold despite my jumper and tracksuit bottoms. I switched from where I was sitting on my sofa, and moved in front of the fireplace with a blanket drawn tightly around my body, up to my neck, believing that with these tools I could fight the overpowering chill that the movie's setting was giving me. Overall this film made me feel emotions raw, and in a way that I haven't felt from a film in a long time. I was enticed by Jennifer Lawrence's superb acting, and I felt that I was experiencing the same journey that she was. I hated the characters she hated, I loved the characters she loved, I felt that I could empathise with her character better than any other female character I have before in a movie. Everything, everywhere reminded me of hopelessness and there was a slight life draining effect that I felt taking me, near the end. From the dead leaves, crunching beneath her feet, to the grinding sound of boots on loose stones underfoot, all the noises including the squawking of birds instead of singing, added to the grey feeling and colour of Winters Bone.