The little film that won in life, and the Oscars!

Winter’s Bone – Debra Granik

Could there be a winter theme for this weekend’s reviews considering the amount of snow pouring over the whole country? Strangely this wasn’t on purpose but a complete coincidence. Winter’s Bone, Frozen, Salt and the Chronicles of Narnia are all snow based, Winter being in the title, frozen because of the snow, salt being used on the snow and the fact that Narnia is always released around Christmas and contains a lot of snow, it all makes sense. But strangely with a name like Winter’s Bone, you’d think it is about snow or the winter time, but it’s much more depressing than that. Well i say depressing, the film is very uplifting, it does tell the story of a girl from a poor family, just trying to help her family out and find her missing father. It has some twists and turns where you want to help out this girl, but you realise she’s just an imaginary character in a fictional film; but somewhere out in the world, people are really like this and it’s just sad to think this could be real.

Following a 17 year old girl named Ree Dolly and played by the fantastic and massive up-and-comer Jennifer Lawrence, it shows her trying to take care of her family which consists of a mother so drugged up on medication she can’t talk or communicate, along with two younger siblings, one brother and one much younger sister as they live in a shack of a home. They live in the middle of what seems like forests with other families who also come from this poor background. She is forced to look for her fugitive father after being told that the house they live in has been tied to the Father’s bond, so they must find him or his dead body within the next couple of days otherwise they will be living on the streets or in the forest. Along with the way she meets up with meth addicts, some shady characters and women who won’t give a fuck and will beat her up. It has a great setting and pace for the story, where it continues to move on when things couldn’t get worse. The shots of the children playing, being innocent cuts at your heart strings, even for a grown man.

A fantastic film with heart and soul and a drive to impress, you can easily see this film winning big at the next award ceremonies, with many people and me calling Jennifer Lawrence’s performance spellbinding. A truly magnificent piece of film, even if it’s hard to swallow.

8/10

Simon Childs