I Like to Watch - Winter's Bone

-T and I watched a rare Thursday evening movie last night.  Originally, I became interested in seeing the low budget movie Winter's Bone simply because it was shot close to KC.  I also heard that it had won a few film festival awards even though it was not widely distributed to major theatres across the country.  It only played in the small "eclectic " and foreign film venues locally.

We had heard from others to be ready for a depressing movie.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I would not call Winter's Bone depressing.  It is dark in places.  The movie presents the best and worst of families, its darkness coming from the worst side of family life.  The plot follows the lead character, Ree, a teenager who has taken on the parent role in her family as the caregiver for her two younger siblings, mother and assorted animals.  Ree's mother is mentally ill and unable to take care of herself.  Ree's father is a meth head and cook in legal trouble with the local police.  He uses the family farm as collateral when bonding out of jail, and then disappears.  The bondsman provides a weeks notice to vacate.  Ree is then left to find her father, or become homeless with a useless mother and two small children.   The dark edge of this movie comes through as she contacts extended family and known acquaintances in her search.

The movie is brilliantly shot.  You can tell that no part of the movie was shot in a studio.  Instead, each scene was shot on site in the Ozark area between Branson and Springfield Missouri.  Each scene was shot at a real life homestead in a very rural part of America.  This brings an authenticity that few movies have.  I found myself constantly exploring each area of each scene absorbing the minute details.  The acting also added to the authenticity of Winter's Bone. There were no big name actors.  In fact, the only actress I was able to recognize was the character Merab played by Dale Dickey, the prostitute character on the show My Name is Earl. 

I found Winter's Bone to be dark but not depressing, and was thoroughly entertained.  I give it two thumbs up.