A Cold, Bleak 'Winter'

'Winter's Bone'

Review: 4.5/5

There's beauty in simplicity. Sounds cliche', I know, but Debra Granik's infinitely tense meditation on blood-ties set against the stinging, bitter Ozark Mountains affirms this archetypal proverb with a crushing disquiet that resonates, throbbing and lingering in the psyche long after the credits roll. It's a testament to purely visual filmmaking - a narrative that progresses with startling discovery and observation, holding the spectator in a taut unease. And it never once lets up.

Ree Dolly (in an Oscar-worthy performance by Jennifer Lawrence), an impoverished, 17-year-old sister to two younger siblings, and daughter to an emotionally flatlined mother, maintains an unwavering doggedness after her drug-dealing father disappears, leaving her to care for her siblings with no financial support. Solving the problem seems simple for Ree: locate her father. Her family, all glaring and unusually suspicious, appears to have valuable information. Extracting that information is another story. Why is everyone so resistant to interrogation? Why is Ree's mother psychologically devastated? How come the county's police sheriff is more interested in preserving his reputation rather than helping to locate Ree's father?

The film, shot by Michael McDonough with a frozen, blue aesthetic that emphasizes the grim, desolate terrain, unfolds visually. Each image evokes an escalating sense of dread, conveying an isolated, claustrophobic realm wherein all hope has been forfeited: with the exception of the virtuous 'Ree.' Any other family would have been proud.