Review of Winter's Bone (2010) by Hanneguacamole — 08 Jun 2015

In a world of male dominance in the film industry, Winter's Bone provided a breath of fresh air with its strong female lead and female director. We start out getting to know Ree as almost a parent and watch as she looks on at those dreams that she was never able to fulfill because of her family responsibilities. We learn that she's more responsible than her own mother and has to provide for the entire family. The most striking to me in this movie were the intensely vivid and realistic scenes. The scenery and props and costumes looked just like I would imagine them to be in this situation. They were dirty, used, and enhanced everything tenfold. It was almost magical because it was so realistic that you couldn't ignore it. I actually really relate a lot to the area she grew up on. I'm not from Missouri but I've spent my fair share of time there as a fellow Midwesterner and I honestly saw a lot of my maternal family with hers. The kind of grungy, real backwoods kind of people. It's a lifestyle. One that I know. And these Midwestern settings and characters are so relatable to me because even if it's not me, it's certainly someone I know. Ree is someone that I would know, someone that would be related to me. I'm far enough away that this isn't ~my family~, but it's in my blood.

"That **** poison–it rips the skin off your bones." Ree's father, Jessup, is a drug dealer and he's missing, most likely (and as we find out later actually is) dead. It's a dangerous business and he got wrapped up in it, yet we don't know the reasons behind his disappearance, whether it was to avoid his court date or because he has gotten in trouble with the wrong people, but either way, his family's house is in jeopardy. There are a couple moments in the movie where I become confused as to the relationships Ree has with these people and why they care so much about her father, but you kind of come to this realization that it doesn't matter. We're not supposed to know everything about her life–we're not her! We really see the complexity of these relationships that she has with people and how, at 17, she is seen as the adult in her family. "What are we gonna do with you, baby girl?" "Kill me, I guess." "That idea's been said already, got any others?" They have no mercy.

Uncertainty is a major theme throughout because we're really as unsure about the future as Ree is. She's trying to save her family and also figure out what happened to her father at the same time, and we're just along for the ride. Ultimately, she does get to keep her house but her father is also dead by forces unknown to her. She must make it seem as if nobody knows who is responsible so she can keep the house, although foul play was certainly involved. He's dead but the family is ok and that's all that's really important to 17 year-old Ree who is just a child trying to keep her family afloat and I think that's all she can really process. We're looking through her eyes and she's coping the best she can. "Even if you find out, you can't ever let me know who killed him.