Winter's Bone

Overview:  Life is no good in the Podunk parts of the world.  It’s especially bad for the Dolly family, where the mom’s gone crazy, the dad has disappeared, and it’s up to the oldest sister Ree to take care of her family.  As if things didn’t get worse, the house will be taken away unless the father is located; and that’s how the movie begins… and that’s exactly what’s shown in the trailer; I shall say no more

The Good:  The two of us didn’t even know this movie existed until we heard it was nominated for best picture, and then it was being made fun of by Wayne and Garth on “Wayne’s World”.  No doubt a few people went to see this because it was easy to laugh at, but after watching it there is nothing funny;  it’s a movie where happiness is rarely found.  Ree's Journey to find her father is a depressing one, and at times it’s so realistically scary that it rivals some of the most frightening of Horror movies; Now I’ll tell you why this is good.  This movie was very good at being realistic in showing how crappy the living conditions are for some of these people who live out in the country, and there are some pretty horrible ones.  Jennifer Lawrence came out of no where, and pulled off one of the finest acting jobs of the year as Ree.  If it wasn’t for her, the movie could have been a failure, but she carried the story perfectly and kept us interested; she was so good that C and I, in a small way, felt the pain she did.  Another good actor was John Hawkes who played uncle Teardrop; he should have at least been nominated for best supporting actor, because C and I agree he was excellent.

The Bad:  Now unless you’ve been living under a rock (and if you have then that’d be freakishly funny), then you will have already realized that this is a depressing movie, and probably not for everyone to watch.  One of my biggest pet-peves in life is people who do wrong and stupid things, and aren’t even aware that what they’re doing is stupid; this movie is full of those people.  Of Course C and I loved the movie regardless; it’s just upsetting sometimes when you see a bunch of wrong-doers get the best of others. 

The Ugly:  This is a very NON-funny movie that does a good job at showing the viewer the harsh living conditions some people deal with out in the country, and it especially does a good job in showing what the consequences are for people who enjoy doing drugs; the mother was crazy for a reason.  Anyone who even thinks about picking up on illegal drugs should definitely see this movie, before that person decides to flush their life down the toilet.  

4 out of 5