Winter's Bone

Rating: 6
Time: 1: 40
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence
Genre: Mature Audience, Drama

Jennifer Lawrence is a Louisvillian and consequently this movie has recieved quite a bit of good publicity locally, as well as excellent reviews from numerous national sources. For the first time in several weeks, I found a movie that I looked forward to seeing. Bottom line: It was a riveting story dripping with gritty realism, but not a particularly entertaining one. It is set in the impoverished Ozarks of Missouri, and revolves around a 17-year-old girl's efforts to find her miscreant father amid the closed-mouth insularity of her neighbors. The father is out on bail, and the bond is the home which the girl (played by Lawrence) is trying to maintain while minding two younger siblings and a mentally disabled mother. If she can't find her father, she will be forced to forfeit the home to the local justice system. Lawrence has gotten kudos for the portrayal as she seems to capture all the hard-wiring and culture of her upbringing. I had trouble following the dialogue which diminshed my appreciation of what otherwise seemed to be an excellent drama.