Winter"s Bone
Much has been made of this film after it won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film and the Best Screenplay Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also received two awards at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival and Stockholm International Film Festival where it won awards for Best Film and Best Actress (Lawrence) and the Fipresci Prize. It has earned seven nominations at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress. It may not do as well at the Oscars, but I would say most of what the film has received has been earned.
For me however, I have to take a step back and wonder if Granik actually knew more about the people she was portraying. Although the film is technically sound and her story structure is strong, the underlying genuineness of these characters rang hollow to me. The overall dark tone of this film also struck me as a little over the top and done for dramatic effect.
This film is mainly a performance piece, where the plot is more of a backdrop in the main character's development from dependent child to the head of her small, fractured clan of kin. 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is the only responsible member of her poverty-stricken Ozark family. Ree looks after her younger brother and sister as well as her mentally incapacitated mother. She finds herself forced to track her fugitive father, a longtime crystal meth dealer, through the local criminal network after she learns that he has put their home up as his bail bond. She suffers a series of harrowing and horrifying encounters on her journey to discovers the truth about the fate of her father but due to her perseverance, her fragile family survives.
There are many things to like about this film. Jennifer Lawrence's performance is well done, many of the supporting cast give honest efforts and the story is sound. It's just something about the tone and portrayal of the Ozarks that rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps something about Debra Granik's WASP background wouldn't allow her to see these people for how they really are, and we can only get mirrors of them in situational despair. I grew up in northern Kentucky and many of the characters displayed in Winter's Bonereminded me of old friends. In places of deep poverty, things certainly get dark and people do what they can to survive. But people in these situations often lean on each other, too. One thing most absent in this portrayal of the people of the Ozarks was laughter. This one-sided slant on the landscape rang hollow, and it didn't seem real enough for me to buy into the film completely. Had it not been for such strong storytelling and great acting, I could have easily dismissed this film.
I hear many of the same rejections of Gran Torino (2008) from the Hmong community, who say that the film's depiction of them was inaccurate and played up for dramatic effect. Although Gran Torino was structurally sound and the acting was solid, something was missing from how genuine it could have been if the production had taken the time to find out more. Winter's Bone repeats the same problem. Although we can credit it for getting many things right in terms of filmmaking, it falls just a little short of greatness because the time and place it is trying to represent is not a place some can believe in.
For me however, I have to take a step back and wonder if Granik actually knew more about the people she was portraying. Although the film is technically sound and her story structure is strong, the underlying genuineness of these characters rang hollow to me. The overall dark tone of this film also struck me as a little over the top and done for dramatic effect.
This film is mainly a performance piece, where the plot is more of a backdrop in the main character's development from dependent child to the head of her small, fractured clan of kin. 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is the only responsible member of her poverty-stricken Ozark family. Ree looks after her younger brother and sister as well as her mentally incapacitated mother. She finds herself forced to track her fugitive father, a longtime crystal meth dealer, through the local criminal network after she learns that he has put their home up as his bail bond. She suffers a series of harrowing and horrifying encounters on her journey to discovers the truth about the fate of her father but due to her perseverance, her fragile family survives.
There are many things to like about this film. Jennifer Lawrence's performance is well done, many of the supporting cast give honest efforts and the story is sound. It's just something about the tone and portrayal of the Ozarks that rubs me the wrong way. Perhaps something about Debra Granik's WASP background wouldn't allow her to see these people for how they really are, and we can only get mirrors of them in situational despair. I grew up in northern Kentucky and many of the characters displayed in Winter's Bonereminded me of old friends. In places of deep poverty, things certainly get dark and people do what they can to survive. But people in these situations often lean on each other, too. One thing most absent in this portrayal of the people of the Ozarks was laughter. This one-sided slant on the landscape rang hollow, and it didn't seem real enough for me to buy into the film completely. Had it not been for such strong storytelling and great acting, I could have easily dismissed this film.
I hear many of the same rejections of Gran Torino (2008) from the Hmong community, who say that the film's depiction of them was inaccurate and played up for dramatic effect. Although Gran Torino was structurally sound and the acting was solid, something was missing from how genuine it could have been if the production had taken the time to find out more. Winter's Bone repeats the same problem. Although we can credit it for getting many things right in terms of filmmaking, it falls just a little short of greatness because the time and place it is trying to represent is not a place some can believe in.
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