Hot on the heels of MADE IN DAGENHAM comes a much better film about female self-empowerment.
Ree Dolly is just 17, her father Jessop has "gone" and Momma is "sick" and "don't talk much". Which means Ree has to bring up her brother and sister (12 and 8) as well as take care of Momma. All this happens amid the tree-clad and beautiful Ozark mountains of rural Missouri.
Culturally, if not geographically, the Ozarks are an extension of the Appalachian back hills of Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. All double denim, checked shirts, unemployment and family feuds. "Cooking up crank" is both a popular local lifestyle choice and cottage industry.
This is real poverty. The horse has not been fed for 4 days. Ree has to teach the young siblings how to use a rifle. Then how to skin squirrels and prepare them for the pot. Turns out later that being able to cut up dead things comes in handy in them thar hills.
The Sheriff is looking for Ree's father who is due in court next week but cannot be found. He explains that the terms of Poppa's bail bond mean if he fails to turn up then the family will lose their house and land. "We'll have to live in the mud!!" No namby-pamby social safety net in this Cameronian-Cleggian free market paradise.
So we are perfectly set up for a Quest Film, one of the half dozen or so basic plots. For young Ree sets off wandering round the neighbours and extended family to ask if they've seen the errant dad. And a mystery emerges. Asking questions is not encouraged among the local community. "Talking just causes witnesses". "You were warned, why didntcha listen?". Something suspicious is going on. To find out what, you have to see the film.
Jennifer Lawrence is excellent as Ree. And this is so much more of a "women's film" than the faux left-leaning Made in Dagenham, for at the helm is celebrated young Director and co-Writer Debra Granik.
WINTER'S BONE won the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize, which establishes it's Indie credentials. Independent US cinema, as encouraged by Sundance, challenges the myth of many Europeans that all American films are dumb mass-audience fodder. WINTER'S BONE is an intelligent and thoughtful piece. It provides mystery and suspense without a single car chase, gunfight, or gag. And the autumnal Ozark countryside is atmospheric and beautiful.
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