BEFORE: The Hunger Games may be over, but Jennifer Lawrence week still has two more films to go. She's sure to make my year-end list of actors and actresses who appeared the most times, and so is pretty much anyone who was a regular in that Hunger Games series. Three appearances usually allows someone to make it to the countdown, and 6 or 7 will bring someone almost to the top.
I'm back on schedule, I planned to hit this one on December 1 because of the word "winter" in the title. I know that technically winter doesn't begin for another three weeks, but this was still my intent.
THE PLOT: An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
AFTER: My boss said the other day that there really only four stories in the world, so each new one that you hear is just a variation on one of the old ones. Seeing a film like "Winter's Bone" really drives that point home - it's a very simple story, the one where someone is looking for someone. In this case it's a teen girl looking for her absent father, but those are just details, the basic framework is the same simple story that's been told time and time again.
It's very strongly suggested that her father's mixed up in the drug scene in rural Missouri, though if you don't know much about "cooking" drugs like meth you might think that he's been working as a chef or something, only there just don't seem to be any fine restaurants in that part of the world. So it eventually becomes clear that he's been doing a different kind of cooking.
The whole first half of the film seems to be the main character knocking on doors of various people and asking them where her father is, then them telling her to shove off. Can you really justify a whole half of a movie like that? And who are all these people, how are they connected, and why won't any of them answer her questions, is it because they don't know or they won't tell? But this became so repetitive that after a while, I just didn't care.
Sure, she needs to prove that her father did not skip town on his bail, because the family house was put up as collateral, and the family would very much like to continue living there. But if he crossed the wrong people and got himself killed, that would be an elegant solution to the problem, because if he died that means he didn't leave town, and therefore his bail and other debts don't need to be paid back. And that means that the family can keep their house.
Other than the search for her father, not a lot goes down - so I'm having trouble seeing how this movie became so critically acclaimed. Who cares? I'm not seeing any big deal here. It apparently did well on the festival circuit, with prizes won at Sundance and other key festivals, but that doesn't always mean a film consists of great storytelling.
Also starring John Hawkes (last seen in "Everest"), Garret Dillahunt (last seen in "12 Years a Slave"), Dale Dickey (last seen in "The Guilt Trip"), Lauren Sweetser, Tate Taylor (last seen in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion"), Sheryl Lee (last seen in "Café Society"), Shelley Waggener, Kevin Breznahan (last seen in "Regarding Henry"), Ronnie Hall, Isaiah Stone, Ashlee Thompson, Cody Shiloh Brown, Cinnamon Schultz, Casey MacLaren, Valerie Richards, William White, Russell Schalk.
RATING: 4 out of 10 roasted squirrels
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