Debrah Granik’s ‘Winter’s Bone’ is focused around one determined young woman. Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is 17 years old, living with her mother and two younger siblings in the Ozark region in Missouri. Her father, like many of the adults Ree knows, has just skipped bail. This is not terribly troubling to Ree, as her father has always been in and out of her life, on the run from the law, or producing drugs (a major economic force in the area). The trouble is that this time, as collateral, he put up the family home. Ree’s mother, due to some unspecified ailment or trauma, has retired from running the household, rarely speaking or responding when spoken to. The care of the household and of the two younger kids is left entirely up to Ree- she cannot afford to lose this house. She has one week to find her father and get him to turn himself in, or to find evidence that he is dead. So Ree sets forth, trekking through the farms, woods, graveyards, going to neighbors, local criminals and family members to find out where her father is.
The film this most brought to mind was 2008’s ‘Frozen River’, another film about a single female protagonist going to extreme lengths to care for her family in some far off wintery corner of the United States. Like that film, the film rests on the shoulders of its main actress. Melissa Leo provided one of the finest performances of that year, and the young Jennifer Lawrence does the same this year. Ree is utterly determined, risking everything to somehow provide for her younger siblings – in effect, she is their mother as well as their sister. When hitting a brick wall, she just throws herself up against it until it either crumbles or hits back. Even when it hits back, Ree will come back and fling herself against that wall tomorrow.
What makes this particularly fascinating, is that almost all of the people Ree encounters and seeks out -from the neighbors to the drug dealers to the gang leaders up on the hill- are either family or have a long history with Ree’s family. The people here are all to some level beholden to the fact that they are family, to codes of honor. But they each have a limit to how much they can abide this girl nosing around, asking questions they can’t allow her to ask. Family only goes so far- Ree’s father did something to harm these people, and at some point, they will reveal the coldness that runs in their veins in order to thwart Ree’s search.
Of all these relatives, none is more troubled by Ree’s search than Teardrop, her father’s brother. Actor John Hawkes -who might be familiar to ‘Deadwood’ fans as Sol Star, the only Jewish resident of Deadwood- generally plays respectable nebishes; nice quiet guys. He is utterly transformed in this film, into a world-weary career criminal, whose face seems to be carved in stone from years of hardship. It is an astonishing transformation, and a great performance. Teardrop is fighting his nature as a hard man, in an attempt to allow him to care for his family like he knows he should. But Ree can’t wait for the battle to be resolved. She continues to endeavor to find out what happened to her father, taking physical and emotional beatings as she goes along.
Granik handles Ree’s quest with great skill- the film is an emotional quest -for family, against giving up- but also a mystery, a real yarn, searching for clues. The structure is kind of ingenious, giving us this great character piece while keeping us engaged in the mystery. ‘Winter’s Bone’ is a terrific film, and a great emotional current runs below it’s bleak and icy surface.
SHLOMO PORATH
