Winter's Bone
"Winter's Bone", like "A Prophet" or "There Will Be Blood", was a tough film for me to rank. I didn't love it but, then again, I went in expecting a completely different film. I read up that it was kind of a noir mystery but it was really more of a character study. In fact, it's almost a reverse "There Will Be Blood", a young girl trying to survive by playing by the rules in spite of everyone around her not seeming to care about her. I don't know if I'd recommend it as a film that people should go out and see in the theater but I'd definitely say that you should add it to your Netflix queue.
"Bone" is a gritty, dark film with some outstanding performances that will probably land, at the very least, some Indie Spirit Award nominations. While I didn't love it, it was still one of the better movies I've seen this year and a far cry from the rubbish I've sat through lately.
For more spoiler-filled reaction, continue reading.
My biggest beef with the film, besides the fact that I went in expecting a mystery, was that everyone was just a complete, thoughtless asshole. Looking back, every single person knew what was going on besides the main girl and nobody would lift (or cut off) a finger to help. The brother knew, the neighbors knew, the cop that first broke the news knew. And why does the whole thing finally get solved? Because "people are talking". I don't know. It makes sense, the hero was headstrong and got her way because she played by the rules but wouldn't take no for an answer, but the ending just left me with an empty feeling that I haven't really had since "Baby Boy", another fake "happy" ending. I mean, this girl now has money but it's not enough to really last when she's raising two kids and taking care of her crazy mom and it's pretty much been proven that her family and neighbors won't help her unless the rumor mill starts a-churning. The film ended and I just felt like, "Great, she's back to the shitty status quo."
The movie was well made and had some terrific performances but it just didn't connect with me. The ending was just a little too neat (even though it wasn't completely clean) and the struggle that I saw the girl go through made me think that she needed to find a way out, not be content that she could stay.
