Review: Winter's Bone

-
This is a lesson in not giving into the hype



My friend and I were having a tough time deciding whether or not we should see Get Low or Winter's Bone. I was for the former, he was for the latter. I eventually agreed with him after hearing such wonderful things about Jennifer Lawrence's performance. Normally this isn't the kind of movie I'd be in to, but if people are calling in "Oscar worthy" I tend to always give it a shot. I love to nerd out on the Oscars, and I need to be fair and see every actor performance that I possibly can.

Winter's Bone follows Ree, (Jennifer Lawrence) a teenager that is basically the head of household. She takes care of her younger siblings, her mother, cooks, cleans, hunts, etc. Her father is a meth head, and after he's arrested for it, he skips out on his court date. Thus, putting their house up as collateral for his bail money. Unless of course, he shows up for his next hearing. He goes missing, and Ree tries to find him. Everyone keeps telling her to mind her own business, but she's determained to find her father and keep her family together.

This movie just wasn't for me. (Friend-o enjoyed it) It was slow paced and uninteresting. Lawrence did give a good performance, (when she wasn't mumbling) but it was also the only decent one in the entire film. None of the characters were likeable and it felt extremely cliched. It was like the film was just waiting to burst out and be something else, but it never happened. I felt like I couldn't fully justify Ree's actions. There was also the nagging question in the back of my mind: Where the hell are Social Services?

On a plus side, the cinematography and the score were beautiful. Really beautiful. Give them some credit, Missouri is a beautiful state.

Recommended: No

Grade: C

Memorable Quote: "I know who killed him" - Teardrop (John Hawkes)

Comments

  1. CastorSeptember 14, 2010 at 7:21 PM

    Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy Winter's Bone. It definitely is a movie that can be off-putting because it feel so artsy and minimalistic. Jennifer Lawrence was very good though and I'm happy you recognized that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brittani BurnhamSeptember 14, 2010 at 8:56 PM

    Minimalistic, that's a good word to describe it. I should've thought of that!

    Thanks for reading.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ryan McNeilSeptember 15, 2010 at 12:23 AM

    Wow - I actually count this as one of the best films I've seen this year!

    You mention that no other performances stand out? I'd suggest John Hawkes as Teardrop: a man who you hear talk and know without question is capable of great violence, but also one of the very few who wants to step up for his niece and do what's right.

    Sorry to hear you didn't like it - maybe it just isn't your cup of tea.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing Bobby, and the
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen
Read more

Please join me in my Favorite Movie Titles Blogathon!

-
Image
Earlier this week I made a post where I ran through the letters of the alphabet with my favorite movie titles. There were a few people that suggested I turn it into a blogathon, and I've never done that before. So here goes nothing! Since this is my first attempt at a blogathon, it's all pretty simple, and it's hopefully a quick post that everyone can join in. Rules: 1) Going through the alphabet, list your favorite movie title beginning with each letter.  2) You don't have to necessarily  like the movie to use it's title.  3) Use the banner at the top of this post in yours. 4) Please have submissions in by Friday, May 30th*. (But I'll be honest, if you send them to me after that date, I'll still add them to my post.) You can either leave a link to your post in the comments here or tweet it to me, ( @ramblingfilm )  Thanks everyone! :)  *I had to move the date back a week due to Photobucket threatening me with bandwidth issues. But
Read more