Eye Candy #491 - "Winter's Bone"

Winter’s Bone:  A phenomenal low-key drama/thriller about a young teenage girl, Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), living with a mentally-ill mother and raising her two younger siblings in the poor Missouri Ozarks.  She’s quit school to raise the children, relies on the hand-outs from neighbors and relatives to get by, and is contemplating joining the military for the money it would provide, the effective head of her household at the age of 17.  When her absentee methamphetamine cook father puts their house up as collateral on his bail bond and then disappears, Ree has to track him down through the various local ne‘er-do-wells and the meth crowd, as well as various relatives including her uncle Teardrop (played by John Hawkes) to find her father so she can save the house for herself and her siblings.  It is a harrowing journey to say the least.  About as bleak as you can get,  this is a portrayal of a facet of contemporary rural America - these are hillbillies and not the fun Beverly Hills kind.  They live on the fringes of society, modern-day Hatfields and McCoys, living lives that are nasty, brutish, and short.  This is the dark side of the moon, where the women may be more awful than the men.  Anderson is a rock as Ree, wise beyond her years and willing to do whatever it takes to save her brother and sister.   Just great to watch on screen.  Hawkes is magnetic as Teardrop, a mercurial, violent man who may or may not be Ree’s ally, a man potent with menace.   Great use of local music, as well.  Director Debra Granik has crafted a fine, fine film here that has won just about every award it’s been nominated for.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”