Winter's Bone (2010)

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Hillbilly hijinx abound as tough teen searches the desolate Ozarks for her meth-cookin' Poppy.

[Guest sharpie]

Went to see it in the theaters on a blistering hot day. Movie made me cold. Depressing as all get-out but that's ok with me.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Thought it was good but maybe not as good as some reviewers said.

The chick gave a great lead performance but there wasn't a lot to suggest why she was the way she was. Why is she the only non-bastard she encounters in the whole town? I kinda had a similar complaint about Juno.

That said, some memorably f-ed up characters and cold lines: "I already told you once... with my mouth."

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Went to see it in the theaters on a blistering hot day. Movie made me cold. Depressing as all get-out but that's ok with me.

Watched this in the living room at the tail end of yesterday's nine-inch snow dump. Somehow, it felt more wintry after the credits rolled on this.

The chick gave a great lead performance but there wasn't a lot to suggest why she was the way she was. Why is she the only non-bastard she encounters in the whole town? I kinda had a similar complaint about Juno. That said, some memorably f-ed up characters and cold lines: "I already told you once... with my mouth."

It felt like a good noir-- including coal-black hill-country versions of Wilder/Chandler one-liners, and the feeling that you were being submerged into a world of shadowy but well-defined codes and obligations-- mixed up with Flannery O'Connor or a trove of Dust Bowl photos. (Some gorgeous shooting of some spare, ugly landscapes, by the way.)

Even an indirect comparison to Juno feels a little unfair-- this may be a nightmarish version of 'em, but these people actually exist (somewhere outside Diablo Cody's crowded head). Why is the lead character so different? The movie doesn't come straight out and tell you-- at least, not with its mouth-- but hints abound (like, say, the fact that she's been pressed into raising her siblings/maintaining a household since the moment she left puberty).

This movie kinda hits you in the mouth, and-- like the first time you taste your own blood-- it's got sort of a bitter tang that's tough to forget.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

touche.

[Frayed Knot]

Any Favre siblings in it?

Edited January 13, 2011 by Guest

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

A couple kind of look like it. But they're a little too decisive to be Favre people.

[Guest themetfairy]

I didn't love it but appreciated it. The acting was top notch.

[Frayed Knot]

'Teardrop' was one hard-ass mutha-fucka ... but at the same time I don't know that his future is going to be all that long.

[Frayed Knot]

I was intrigued enough by this flick to seek out and read the book that was the source.
That's fairly unusual for me, first because I'm not much of a fiction reader but also if I'm going to read a book and see the movie I usually do so in that order. Can't think of a recent time when it's been movie first.

Anyway, the book of the same name by Daniel Woodrell is a short little read (can knock it off in a few days) but the movie holds fairly true to the source. Aside from the usual caveat about how the book can flesh out the characters more fully, Ree's younger siblings are both boys in the book* and the character of her best friend is a bit more prominent. But mostly it's the same story and much of the dialog and great lines are ripped straight from the written page.

The author turns out to be someone who both grew up and still lives in the Ozark Mountain region near the Missouri/Arkansas border, lending some authenticity to LWFS's idea about how people like this and the world they inhabit really exist. He's a guy who joined the marines the day he turned 17 before eventually getting a college degree in his late 20s and later attending writer's workshops in preparation for a literary career.




* there was some note in the credits which indicated that the actor who played the little sister was a local, someone who lived at or near where the film was shot - that was possibly the reason for the change from two younger brothers to one brother and one sister.