Good Movie Review About Winters Bone

“Winter’s Bone”, directed by Debra Granik, and released in 2010, is the story of a young family struggling to survive in the Ozarks. Ree, played by Jennifer Lawrence, desperately clings to the hope that her father will return from one of his many benders as she attempts to juggle caring for her mother and younger siblings while still attending school. Eventually, she learns that her father has become involved in meth and has himself become a drug dealer. The movie follows Ree, as she traverses challenging social terrain in the Ozark community, trying to find her father, while learning about his life, the meth community in the process. “Winter’s Bone” offers a heart wrenching depiction of Ree’s situation. Many of the affectations in the movie pay homage to realism, lending themselves to the believability of the film. Other traits left something to be desired.
“Winter’s Bone” lends itself to the genres of murder mystery, as well as drama. Set in the woods of the Missouri Ozarks, there are many details to portray accurately. The film does a good job of this, showing the small community Ree grows up in as clannish and somewhat uncivilized. Cooking a squirrel for a meal is of no consequence to any of the people here, nor is shooting it with a gun they have probably own since before they could drive. Methamphetamines and other drugs are also common in this mountainous region, making this element of the movie very believable because it is one of the primary plot points. Ree’s father has put up the family’s house for his bail bond after being arrested, and now she must find him, which is how she learns of his involvement in drugs. This is also not uncommon.
Many small communities within the Ozark Mountains are almost completely off the grid, as portrayed in “Winter’s Bone.” The townspeople have almost no interaction with the outside world, making drugs such a viable resource, as well as such a cancerous toxin. The communities are involved in commercial transactions, and some of the children attend school, as Ree attempts to even though her life is crumbling around her. This small town life can seem suffocating and desperate, not only in the Ozarks, but anywhere. The military can seem like a viable option to make money, as well as escape the confines of such a small community. Realism takes this form in the movie as Ree is seen attempting to enlist, not only to escape, but also to earn money to help her family. Her motivations are not purely selfish. At her core, she truly wishes to help build a better life for her younger siblings; she takes on the role of their mother for most of the movie, which is also believable for the family dynamic the movie established.
Ree seems resourceful. She has no problem caring for her siblings at a moment’s notice. She tries to teach them to shoot and explains that if they learn to catch food for themselves they will always have something to eat. This suggests that not only is she eventually planning on leaving, but she is also not heartless, she wants to leave them capable of taking care of themselves since their father is a deadbeat and their mother is an invalid. This is understandable. Ree is 17, she should leave. The burden of raising children is not hers. Growing up in a meth infested town has aged her; she shows no fear when speaking to authority figures or exclaiming that people get off of her property. True to the situation, she has taken on the role as head of the household. She continues this role after learning the family will likely lose their house if her father is not found.
In her search, she is forced to question many people living further outside of the community that even her family has dared. These are where the drugs are made, and this is very common for rural areas. Those who make meth, or any other drug, go into hiding. The farther away from the law they can get, the safer they will remain while they are in business. Her questions about her meth-cooking father are met with hostility. This is also realistic and believable. Though she has lived in the community for many years and is known, or known of, by almost everybody, all acquaintanceships are forgotten at the prospect of being caught. Traditionally, in drug-using communities, if a person is asking questions it is not good news. Usually lawbreakers do not enjoy anybody asking questions about their affairs, it can lead to law enforcement asking questions about their affairs. Ree is quickly discouraged from asking further questions. However, her family’s livelihood is on the line, and she persists.
The visual aesthetics of the film are some of the most realistic and believable elements. Ree and her family are poor. The father cooks meth and is absent. The mother is an invalid who cannot afford medical attention. The yard is unkempt; toys are dirty and few, and the children always seem to look unwashed. There is little food to go around between the family members. The supporting characters also always seem to look dirty and disheveled. It looks as if they have been smeared with dirt or coal. With unkempt hair, sagging skin, and eyes that long for a fix, their tattered clothes say they have seen better days. People of propriety do not look this way. The entire town looks grey; even when the sun is shining it is as though there is a haze surrounding this Ozark village. The drab look gives the town and its people a look of complete hopelessness. Ree’s school, typically a child’s one hope for redemption in a town such as this, is also drab. The cinematography is grainy, casting a sad shadow over an atmosphere that should otherwise be a source of hope and inspiration. Normally a shining beacon for students, the school is just another thing Ree must check off of her list during the day. Understandably, or perhaps realistically, the only clean looking person throughout the entire film is the army recruiter Ree speaks too. This sets him apart from the others in town, suggesting that this may be Ree’s only ticket away from what life in the Ozarks may become.
The character’s actions and cinematography are not the only realistic part about “Winter’s Bone.” The sound of the movie, how people speak, is also very believable. The people of this community are cut off from most of society. If there is cable television, most cannot afford it. There is a school but the education is not worth much. Accents are deep and thick; voices are low, and people do not often say much. Typically, in more sociable, connected communities it is easy to find people who are chatty, loud, and even obnoxious. They talk openly about private things because their private business is not that bad. In the Ozarks, however, where methamphetamines are cooked on a regular basis, fires begin because of bad cooking experiences, and children are dragged away by social services every other day, people are not so chatty and open. When Ree begins to ask questions about her father, people do not talk, and they implore her to stop talking, as well. Asking questions is a good way to get in trouble in a small community where the primary source of income is illegal. Here in a small Ozark town, private business is not spoken about because it is very personal, and very dangerous. This added to the element of realism that the film helped perpetrate.
While there were many things the film did concerning actions, cinematography, and sound to add to the movies realism, some of the movie was unrealistic. The size of the town is described, multiple times, as being very small. Everybody knows everybody. This setting is intimate. It is likely that a person could not leave their house twice in one day without seeing nearly everybody in town. Yet Ree spends the entire film working at a backbreaking pace to find the somebody that can help her find her father. This seems unrealistic; in a place this size all she has to do is go to the nearest bar and wait it out. Also, while I do not advocate for taking advantage of the system, Ree is a minor who is caring for two minors, as well as her disabled mother. They can rarely afford enough food, and yet nobody as applied for food stamps or disability. In a town that appears to have no problems taking somebody for all they are worth, this was unrealistic. Curiously, none of the meth cookers or dealers seems to be dipping into their own stash. Everybody looks like they are on drugs. Some are missing teeth, while others scratch at themselves and pick at their skin. Characters in the background are unmistakably on drugs, which adds to the realistic effect of the film, but after an analysis of many supporting character’s actions are taken into account it is clearly that this is the most self-controlled group of drug dealers alive. None of them are using the drugs. That nobody working this close with drugs, in a town that does not even have a Wal-Mart, would not get addicted to meth is beyond comprehension.
In sum, “Winter’s Bone” was, for the most part’ very believable. The actions of the characters leant themselves to the realism, primarily. With the exception of none of the drug-dealers of cookers trying their product, the characters acted stereotypically for a setting such as this. The cinematography was also very realistic. The town was drab and grey. The population’s clothes were shabby, and everybody looked dirty and unhappy. The army recruiter was the only person who looked like he showered. They sounded uneducated, as if they had been cut off from society for several generations. Though there were some discrepancies in Ree’s attempt to find the drug lord, the severity of her poverty, and the self-control of the drug dealers, overall the film showed a heightened propensity for realism.