Saturday, January 29, 2011

Winter's Bone (2010) (2nd time)


A girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact. [imdb]

Nominated for 4 Oscars:

Best Picture
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Best Supporting Actor: John Hawkes
Best Adapted Screenplay

This movie was one of the pleasant film surprises I've had in 2010, because, while preparing to see it for the 1st time, I really expected it to be more Frozen River-like (which meant bad supporting acting and low production values). Instead, Winter's Bone has believable, relevant acting all around, the cinematography is efficient, the original score has the right mood and it all comes together nicely.
There's not much of a story in the film, but it's strength lies in the simple way it's crafted and in the charisma / right casting of leading actress Jennifer Lawrence, of which I'll write more on the other blog. John Hawkes and Dale Dickey give some very interesting supporting performances, while Debra Granik's subtle direction works fine, especially in the famous lake scene.
My rating for the film: 8/10. It felt nice even the second time around and I'm happy it got nominated: it's better than most of the front-runners.

3 comments:

  1. I loved this movie after the 2nd time. I think it deserves the BP nom.

    Do you think Hawkes deserved his nom?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That lake scene! GAH. I liked it a lot as well, and I'm really sad that Dale Dickey never got any buzz. She was simply phenomenal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would've much rather seen Garfield there, rather than Hawkes. I liked Hawkes's performance, but he won't be nowhere near my Top 5 when I'll give my awards in the spring.

    ReplyDelete