Winter's Bone (2010)

An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.

Director:

Debra Granik

Writers:

Debra Granik (screenplay), Anne Rosellini (screenplay)

Stars:

Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 63 wins & 127 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Lawrence	...	Ree
Isaiah Stone	...	Sonny
Ashlee Thompson	...	Ashlee
Valerie Richards	...	Connie
Shelley Waggener	...	Sonya
Garret Dillahunt	...	Sheriff Baskin
William White	...	Blond Milton
Ramona Blair	...	Parenting Teacher
Lauren Sweetser	...	Gail
Andrew Burnley	...	Baby Ned
Phillip Burnley	...	Baby Ned
Isaac Skidmore	...	Baby Ned
Cody Brown	...	Floyd
Cinnamon Schultz	...	Victoria
John Hawkes	...	Teardrop

Storyline

Her family home in danger of being repossessed after her dad skips bail and disappears, Ozark teen Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) breaks the local code of conduct by confronting her kin about their conspiracy of silence. Should she fail to track her father down, Ree Dolly, her younger siblings, and their disabled mother will soon be rendered homeless.

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Plot Keywords:

ozark mountains | family relationships | drug trade | girl | family crisis | 

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Taglines:

Everyone's got a secret

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some drug material, language and violent content

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jennifer Lawrence was originally turned down for the role of Ree for being "too pretty." She flew overnight into New York City, walked 13 blocks in the sleet to the casting office, and auditioned with a runny nose and hair she hadn't washed in a week. Lawrence won the role, and ultimately, her first Academy Award nomination (for Best Actress) at 20 years old.

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Goofs

When Gail comes over to Ree's house, they are both standing at the kitchen counter with baby Ned on the counter in his car seat. Ree is eating something out of a cast iron skillet with a fork, Gail pulls out the keys to the truck while Ree is eating with the fork and then throws the keys down onto the counter, but now the fork is in the skillet and no longer on Ree's hand.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ree: [waking her] Ashlee Dawn...
Ashlee: Hmmm?
[to her brother]
Ashlee: Wake up...

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Connections

Referenced in Late Night with Seth Meyers: Taylor Schilling/Simon Pegg/Maren Morris/Atom Willard (2016)

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Soundtracks

Wrong
Written by Katherine Miller
Performed by Lumatic
Courtesy of Lumatic

User Reviews

Shades of Deliverance, deja vu

This film tells the sad story of inbred, poverty-stricken, Missouri Ozark hillbillies trying to scratch out a living on poor soil and even worse personal resources, so it was no wonder meth production was embraced as a life-changing profit center that had the illegal potential to change their lives for the better. Their poor lives before meth had a certain dignity in the hard struggle for survival in an uncaring world that had passed them by or never allowed them to catch up, either or both, but cheap and dangerous drug production leading to fast but risky money took these unfortunates down a road that surely few would have chosen if they had a chance beforehand to see any of the personal and social harm it created in a society already at great risk of decent survival. What great harm it did was shown and acted brilliantly, as it pushed these already at-risk people lower down the chain of life than before and surely even lower than the wild animals they had to kill for food.

A young girl of 17, seeming older than her years, beaten up and beaten down, wary of those around her but needing their help, and with 2 young siblings and a helpless mother to care for, she learned that her drug-making, drugged-out father disappeared and missed a court date for a drug arrest, and the most important task of her life then became finding her father before they lost their meager home to bondsmen, as that sorry home place was all they had in the world but it was home and she intended with all her heart and soul to do whatever it took to keep it and her family together. The acting throughout was appropriately serious to deadly, with hardly even a smile to be seen, and left us thankful as seldom before for whatever our own lives give us compared to those in the story.

Such a grim and foreboding task the daughter had, with imminent harm threatening around every corner she turned and behind every door on which she knocked, even those of relatives. Determination can get you far, but only so far unless you get a few breaks, and that long quest for a decent break was what kept viewer's eyes glued to the screen until it all played out in the end as could be expected in that dire situation.

Bleak, stark, harsh, mean, cruel...all those tough adjectives were present in full force throughout her search, but present also was her eternal fire of human spirit and family duty that would never quit. When actual survival is at stake, this story showed well that some of us truly can find the right stuff to survive when no better choices are possible.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 July 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Winter's Bone

Filming Locations:

Branson, Missouri, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$84,797, 13 June 2010

Gross USA:

$6,531,503

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$13,796,834

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anonymous Content, Winter's Bone Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1