[6.50/10] Winter's Bone (2010)

Winter's Bone (2010)

Short review: Based on Daniel Woodrell's novel of the same name, "Winter's Bone" tells the story of Ree Dolly, a gutsy teenager, who after facing the loss of her home and siblings, sets out on a dangerous quest to learn the fate of her missing father. While this is an emotionally powerful and truly sad film, its painfully slow pacing, muddled direction, and grim and often depressing settings, make it quite difficult to watch and, unfortunately, not a very pleasant experience. Although the story is slightly overcomplicated and rather confusing at times, and the poverty subject is quite oppressive, "Winter's Bone" is fairly interesting and suspenseful drama, that succeeds in evoking emotions, and makes the viewer feel connected with the characters and their struggles. "Winter's Bone" is driven by Jennifer Lawrence's character, Ree Dolly, and she's certainly the highlight of this film. Lawrence's performance is incredibly strong - she shines in every scene and she's thoroughly believable and engaging as the vulnerable, yet fearless main heroine. John Hawkes and Dale Dickey also deliver fine performances. The visual style reflects the mood of the film quite well - the low-key cinematography by Michael McDonough is murky and quite grim, yet somewhat beautiful in its own way, and the music score is pretty haunting. Overall, "Winter's Bone" is sad and painfully slow-moving, yet absorbing and truly moving drama that has a very realistic feeling to it and often manages to impact the viewer emotionally.