Review of Winter's Bone (2010) by Larry C — 18 Sep 2016

Winter's Bone is the tale of a 17-year-old girl who is trying to take care of her family since her mother has gone crazy and her dad has gone missing. It is a very good character piece, and I can see why Jennifer Lawrence grabbed the attention of both the Academy and movie studios.

Her portrayal of this girl with the entire world on her shoulders was superb, and she went through the full gamut of emotions in her performance. The style of the film is kind of tough to get into, because it is one of those independent films with almost zero exposition.

So we, as an audience, have to piece together what is going on through a number of conversations between the different characters. Even with that, I sometimes struggled to understand exactly what was going on because there was clearly so much history between everyone, and since they all know what went on they don't feel the need to talk about it for our benefit.

Once I deciphered it all, the story was a little flat and uninteresting. I think they were trying to add a bit of mystery to the plot, but I wasn't intrigued by it. There are a few scenes that shine above the rest, and those are the things that will stick in my memory, but the movie lacked something for me.

I can see the craftsmanship that went into making it, and I appreciate why many people would love Winter's Bone. It might not work well for me, but it could for many others.