Winter's Bone

“Never ask for what ought to be offered.” Winter's Bone impressively depicts the addressing of the difficult situation of an incomplete family in an already tough life in difficult circumstances (where livelihoods are made by hand in the forest). The driving force of the film is not so much its screenplay as the atmospheric environment of the Midwestern backcountry, where gardens are scattered with the rusty remains of cars and sheds are used to make and take crystal meth. And where the social rules followed by the inhabitants will chill you to the bone. The film rises and falls with Jennifer Lawrence, who possesses a talent rarely seen on the screen. Winter’s Bone feels close to the Coens’ Fargo, just without the black humor. I’m not inclined to take a trip to Missouri after watching this. (07.07.2014)

A film that tries to kill the myth of the joyful rural life so fiercely that it becomes very annoying. I don’t understand all that praise to Jennifer Lawrence, I think her performance was just slightly above-par. (09.01.2011)

I am surprised that a movie that tries so hard to be unique, is unfriendly to the audience and unfriendly in terms of characters, starts drowning in its own juice and light routine right from the start. If only something or someone was negatively inclined, maybe I could empathize with Ree, but when the entire environment is bleak and everyone is hostile, dirty, or partying, the intensity quickly fades away. Moreover, the main storyline is so thin that after an hour it repeats itself for the third time and it's clear that it can only end in two possible ways. The one that eventually happened suits me better, so thanks to it and a solid performance from John Hawkes, Winter's Bone is worth a stronger 50%. However, the Oscar nominations were a bigger disappointment. (18.02.2011)

I have always associated Jennifer Lawrence's charming face with masks of comic book characters and romantic Hollywood sentimental films. And behold, at the age of 20, she played the lead role in a raw social drama. However, Winter's Bone does not rely only on her performance. The environment and hostility of the local white trash community play a big role. I would say it's a significantly underrated film, but in my eyes, it definitely works better than most of the Dardenne brothers' films full of socially noble boredom. Overall impression: 90%. (28.12.2020)

A purely tense redneck flick where you spend most of the time waiting for someone to get disemboweled or have their head blown off. Surprisingly, it's not that wild, because it lets the viewer work with the chilling idea of what it would look like if it were so, pouring out the nonstop cold atmosphere of rural backwoods, where instead of flowers and trees there are car wrecks, or even junkie dens. Jennifer Lawrence carries it on her shoulders, but the script doesn’t let her fully shine. It’s a pity that about half of the shots in the film are three times longer than it would be necessary to make it entertaining. (17.07.2017)