Winter's Bone
Encyclopedia
Winter's Bone is a 2010 American
independent
drama film
, an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell
's 2006 novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Debra Granik
and stars Jennifer Lawrence
. It explores the interrelated themes of close and distant family ties, the power and speed of gossip, patriarchy
, self-sufficiency, and rural poverty in the Ozarks as they are changed by the pervasive underworld of illegal methamphetamine
labs. The film won a number of awards, including the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It was selected for four 2011 Academy Award
nominations: Best Picture
, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress
and Best Supporting Actor
.
), 17, looks after her catatonic mother; her brother, Sonny (12); and her sister, Ashlee (6). Every day, Ree makes sure her siblings eat, dress, and go to school, all the while teaching them basic survival skills like hunting and cooking. The family is very poor. Ree's father, Jessup, a meth cooker, hasn't been home for a long time and his whereabouts are unknown. He is out on bail
following an arrest for cooking meth.
The sheriff tells Ree that if her father doesn't show up for his court date, they will lose the house because it was put up as part of his bond. Ree sets out to find her father, following his trail into a world where meth use is common, violence is frequent, women are scared of their men, and people are bound by codes of loyalty and secrecy. She starts with her meth-addicted uncle Teardrop and continues on to more distant kin, eventually trying to talk to the local crime boss
, Thump Milton. Thump refuses to even see her; the only information Ree comes up with are warnings to leave the situation alone, and stories that Jessup died in a meth lab fire or skipped town to avoid the trial.
When Jessup fails to show for the trial, the bondsman
comes looking for him and tells Ree that she will have about a week before the house and land are seized. Ree tells him that Jessup must be dead, because "Dollys don't run." He tells her that she will need to provide proof that her father is dead in order to avoid the bond being forfeited. Ree tries to go to see Thump again and is severely beaten by his women, since it would be improper for a man to hurt her. Teardrop shows up and rescues Ree, promising her attackers that she won't say anything or cause any more trouble. Teardrop tells Ree that her father was killed because he was going to inform on other meth cookers, but he does not know who killed Jessup.
Teardrop decides to stir things up by confronting Thump's men and smashing their windshield. When the sheriff pulls Teardrop and Ree over after the altercation, Teardrop accuses him of telling Thump that Jessup was going to inform. When he shows the sheriff his rifle, the sheriff holsters his gun and lets them drive away.
A few nights later, the same three Milton women who beat Ree come to her house. They offer to take her to see "her daddy's bones." The women blindfold Ree and drive her to a pond, where they get into a rowboat and row to the shallow place where her father's submerged body lies. They tell Ree to reach into the water and grasp her father's hands so they can cut them off with a chainsaw; the severed, decaying arms will serve as proof of death for the authorities.
Ree takes the hands to the sheriff, telling him that someone flung them onto the porch of her house. The sheriff is concerned that she will tell others about the traffic stop, which would make him look weak. She assures him that she has no interest in talking about him to anyone.
Teardrop brings two baby chicks for Sonny and Ashlee to raise. The bondsman comes back to the house and gives Ree the cash portion of the bond, which was put up by an anonymous associate of Jessup. Ree tries to give Jessup's banjo to Teardrop, but he tells her to keep it and that he now knows who killed her father. Ree reassures Sonny and Ashlee that she won't ever leave them.
, Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini were looking for another project. Granik and Rosellini informed author Daniel Woodrell of their interest in his yet-unpublished material. They later said that he was receptive to their interest based on their previous work. "He had seen our previous film, which let him know how we work, and the scrappy type of filmmaking that we do, which would be low budget. He had a very distinct reference and he let us know that he liked that film, which also had the word ‘bone’ in it. And when he gave us that confidence, he knew what we were about, so the expectations were appropriate".
Granik also commented that the subject matter of meth and its impact upon the Ozarks region were troubling for both cast and crew. "I think that the subject of meth for everybody involved – for local people and the crew – it was extremely upsetting. There is not one aspect of looking at meth that is mellow or benign: what it does to a human being’s body, their faces, their teeth. Everything about it is so vicious, and so dramatic and so relentless. There is basically not one bit of solace in that whole depiction of actual reality of it."
Granik said that the filmmakers gave Lawrence "obstacles" to create a more authentic and detailed performance: "I think that Jennifer Lawrence was given these very real settings in which to function and very real obstacles. She really had to run the hill. She really had to wrangle her onscreen brother and sister in certain things. She did have logs and different kinds of animals to contend with. And the fact that she had these real-life tasks I think we started to feel confident that everything the actress was doing would have a rigor to it and you would sense that she was not just breathing through experiences."
According to the end credits, it was filmed entirely on location in Christian County, Missouri
, and Taney County, Missouri
.
reports that 94% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 157 reviews, for an average score of 8.3/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", the film also holds an overall approval rating of 94%, based on a sample of 31 reviews. The site's "consensus" reads, "Bleak, haunting, and yet still somehow hopeful, Winter's Bone is writer-director Debra Granik's best work yet—and it boasts an incredible, starmaking performance from Jennifer Lawrence." Metacritic
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, reports a rating score of 90 based on 35 reviews, placing the film in Metacritic's "universal acclaim" category. Reviewer Peter Travers
found the film "unforgettable", writing in Rolling Stone, "Granik handles this volatile, borderline horrific material with unblinking ferocity and feeling.... In Lawrence, Granik has found just the right young actress to inhabit Ree. Her performance is more than acting, it's a gathering storm." Web-based critic James Berardinelli
said that "Winter's Bone is a welcome reminder that thrillers don't have to be loud and boisterous to grab the attention and keep it captive." David Edelstein
wrote in New York
magazine, "For all the horror, it’s the drive toward life, not the decay, that lingers in the mind. As a modern heroine, Ree Dolly has no peer, and Winter’s Bone is the year’s most stirring film." New Yorker
critic David Denby called Winter's Bone "one of the great feminist works in film."
, Los Angeles
and Boston
, at "heartland cities" such as Minneapolis, Overland Park
, St. Louis
, Springfield
, Dallas and Denver, which eventually all attracted significant audiences, surpassing New York's. According to the distributor, "the filmmakers had always wanted to deliver the movie to the people who helped them make it." As of March 2011, the film had grossed over $6.5 million in cinema ticket sales in the U.S. and nearly $2.2 million internationally.
, it won the awards for Best Film, Best Actress (Lawrence) and the Fipresci Prize.
The film won Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance at the 2010 Gotham Awards
. It earned seven nominations at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards
, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
independent
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
, an adaptation of Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell
Daniel Woodrell is an American writer of fiction. He has written eight novels, most of them set in the Missouri Ozarks. Woodrell coined the phrase "country noir" to describe his 1996 novel Give Us a Kiss...
's 2006 novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Debra Granik
Debra Granik
Debra Granik is an American independent film director. She has won a series of awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including Best Short in 1998 for Snake Feed , the Dramatic Directing Award in 2004 for her first feature-length film, Down to the Bone Debra Granik (born February 6, 1963) is an...
and stars Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American film and television actress. She has had lead roles in TBS's The Bill Engvall Show and in the independent films The Burning Plain and Winter's Bone, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress...
. It explores the interrelated themes of close and distant family ties, the power and speed of gossip, patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
, self-sufficiency, and rural poverty in the Ozarks as they are changed by the pervasive underworld of illegal methamphetamine
Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine is a psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs...
labs. The film won a number of awards, including the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It was selected for four 2011 Academy Award
83rd Academy Awards
The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2010 and took place February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, Academy Awards ...
nominations: Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
and Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
.
Plot
Ree Dolly (Jennifer LawrenceJennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American film and television actress. She has had lead roles in TBS's The Bill Engvall Show and in the independent films The Burning Plain and Winter's Bone, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress...
), 17, looks after her catatonic mother; her brother, Sonny (12); and her sister, Ashlee (6). Every day, Ree makes sure her siblings eat, dress, and go to school, all the while teaching them basic survival skills like hunting and cooking. The family is very poor. Ree's father, Jessup, a meth cooker, hasn't been home for a long time and his whereabouts are unknown. He is out on bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
following an arrest for cooking meth.
The sheriff tells Ree that if her father doesn't show up for his court date, they will lose the house because it was put up as part of his bond. Ree sets out to find her father, following his trail into a world where meth use is common, violence is frequent, women are scared of their men, and people are bound by codes of loyalty and secrecy. She starts with her meth-addicted uncle Teardrop and continues on to more distant kin, eventually trying to talk to the local crime boss
Crime boss
A crime boss or boss is a person in charge of a criminal organization. A boss typically has absolute or near-absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits come from the...
, Thump Milton. Thump refuses to even see her; the only information Ree comes up with are warnings to leave the situation alone, and stories that Jessup died in a meth lab fire or skipped town to avoid the trial.
When Jessup fails to show for the trial, the bondsman
Bail bondsman
A bail bond agent, or bondsman, is any person or corporation that will act as a surety and pledge money or property as bail for the appearance of persons accused in court...
comes looking for him and tells Ree that she will have about a week before the house and land are seized. Ree tells him that Jessup must be dead, because "Dollys don't run." He tells her that she will need to provide proof that her father is dead in order to avoid the bond being forfeited. Ree tries to go to see Thump again and is severely beaten by his women, since it would be improper for a man to hurt her. Teardrop shows up and rescues Ree, promising her attackers that she won't say anything or cause any more trouble. Teardrop tells Ree that her father was killed because he was going to inform on other meth cookers, but he does not know who killed Jessup.
Teardrop decides to stir things up by confronting Thump's men and smashing their windshield. When the sheriff pulls Teardrop and Ree over after the altercation, Teardrop accuses him of telling Thump that Jessup was going to inform. When he shows the sheriff his rifle, the sheriff holsters his gun and lets them drive away.
A few nights later, the same three Milton women who beat Ree come to her house. They offer to take her to see "her daddy's bones." The women blindfold Ree and drive her to a pond, where they get into a rowboat and row to the shallow place where her father's submerged body lies. They tell Ree to reach into the water and grasp her father's hands so they can cut them off with a chainsaw; the severed, decaying arms will serve as proof of death for the authorities.
Ree takes the hands to the sheriff, telling him that someone flung them onto the porch of her house. The sheriff is concerned that she will tell others about the traffic stop, which would make him look weak. She assures him that she has no interest in talking about him to anyone.
Teardrop brings two baby chicks for Sonny and Ashlee to raise. The bondsman comes back to the house and gives Ree the cash portion of the bond, which was put up by an anonymous associate of Jessup. Ree tries to give Jessup's banjo to Teardrop, but he tells her to keep it and that he now knows who killed her father. Ree reassures Sonny and Ashlee that she won't ever leave them.
Cast
- Jennifer LawrenceJennifer LawrenceJennifer Shrader Lawrence is an American film and television actress. She has had lead roles in TBS's The Bill Engvall Show and in the independent films The Burning Plain and Winter's Bone, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress...
as Ree Dolly - John HawkesJohn Hawkes (actor)John Hawkes is an American film and television actor. He is known for his portrayal of the merchant Sol Star on the HBO series Deadwood, Dustin Powers on Eastbound & Down, and his Academy Award-nominated performance as the menacing backwoods meth addict Teardrop in Winter's Bone.-Life and...
as Teardrop Dolly - Lauren Sweetser as Gail
- Garret Dillahunt as Sheriff Baskin
- Dale DickeyDale DickeyDale Dickey is an American actress best known for her recurring role as Patty on My Name is Earl and for her supporting roles in films such as Domino and Winter's Bone....
as Merab - Shelley Waggener as Sonya
- Kevin Breznahan as Little Arthur
- Ashlee Thompson as Ashlee Dolly
- Tate TaylorTate TaylorTate Taylor is an American actor, screenwriter, film producer and director.He was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. He is a close friend of a writer Kathryn Stockett, whom he has known since they were in preschool together in Jackson....
as Satterfield - Sheryl LeeSheryl LeeSheryl Lee is an American actress. She came to international attention for her performances as Laura Palmer and Maddy Ferguson on the 1990 cult TV series Twin Peaks and in the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me...
as April - Cody Shiloh Brown as Floyd
- Isaiah Stone as Sonny Dolly
Production
After the release of Debra Granik's first film Down to the BoneDown to the Bone (film)
Down to the Bone is a 2005 independent film drama, starring Vera Farmiga, who received a "Best Actress" award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for the role...
, Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini were looking for another project. Granik and Rosellini informed author Daniel Woodrell of their interest in his yet-unpublished material. They later said that he was receptive to their interest based on their previous work. "He had seen our previous film, which let him know how we work, and the scrappy type of filmmaking that we do, which would be low budget. He had a very distinct reference and he let us know that he liked that film, which also had the word ‘bone’ in it. And when he gave us that confidence, he knew what we were about, so the expectations were appropriate".
Granik also commented that the subject matter of meth and its impact upon the Ozarks region were troubling for both cast and crew. "I think that the subject of meth for everybody involved – for local people and the crew – it was extremely upsetting. There is not one aspect of looking at meth that is mellow or benign: what it does to a human being’s body, their faces, their teeth. Everything about it is so vicious, and so dramatic and so relentless. There is basically not one bit of solace in that whole depiction of actual reality of it."
Granik said that the filmmakers gave Lawrence "obstacles" to create a more authentic and detailed performance: "I think that Jennifer Lawrence was given these very real settings in which to function and very real obstacles. She really had to run the hill. She really had to wrangle her onscreen brother and sister in certain things. She did have logs and different kinds of animals to contend with. And the fact that she had these real-life tasks I think we started to feel confident that everything the actress was doing would have a rigor to it and you would sense that she was not just breathing through experiences."
According to the end credits, it was filmed entirely on location in Christian County, Missouri
Christian County, Missouri
Christian County is a county located in Southwest Missouri. The county had a population of 54,285 in 2000 census. According to the 2010 census, the county's population is 77,422 , making it the fastest growing county in Missouri and one of the fastest growing in the nation as the county becomes...
, and Taney County, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
.
Critics
Winter's Bone received widespread critical acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 94% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 157 reviews, for an average score of 8.3/10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", the film also holds an overall approval rating of 94%, based on a sample of 31 reviews. The site's "consensus" reads, "Bleak, haunting, and yet still somehow hopeful, Winter's Bone is writer-director Debra Granik's best work yet—and it boasts an incredible, starmaking performance from Jennifer Lawrence." Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, reports a rating score of 90 based on 35 reviews, placing the film in Metacritic's "universal acclaim" category. Reviewer Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Peter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
found the film "unforgettable", writing in Rolling Stone, "Granik handles this volatile, borderline horrific material with unblinking ferocity and feeling.... In Lawrence, Granik has found just the right young actress to inhabit Ree. Her performance is more than acting, it's a gathering storm." Web-based critic James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
said that "Winter's Bone is a welcome reminder that thrillers don't have to be loud and boisterous to grab the attention and keep it captive." David Edelstein
David Edelstein
David Edelstein is the chief film critic for New York Magazine, as well as the film critic for NPR's Fresh Air and CBS Sunday Morning. He lives in Brooklyn, New York....
wrote in New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine, "For all the horror, it’s the drive toward life, not the decay, that lingers in the mind. As a modern heroine, Ree Dolly has no peer, and Winter’s Bone is the year’s most stirring film." New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
critic David Denby called Winter's Bone "one of the great feminist works in film."
Audience
Winter's Bone debuted in cinemas in mid-June 2010, with its opening weekend generating "a hearty" $84,797 on four screens; the movie’s subsequent outing and expansion to 39 total venues yielded sales of $351,317 (for a per-theater average of $9,008). The film's distributors Roadside Attractions aimed, concurrently with New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, at "heartland cities" such as Minneapolis, Overland Park
Overland Park, Kansas
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 149,080 people, 59,703 households, and 39,702 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,627.0 people per square mile . There were 62,586 housing units at an average density of 1,102.9 per square mile...
, St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Springfield
Springfield, Missouri
Springfield is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and the county seat of Greene County. According to the 2010 census data, the population was 159,498, an increase of 5.2% since the 2000 census. The Springfield Metropolitan Area, population 436,712, includes the counties of...
, Dallas and Denver, which eventually all attracted significant audiences, surpassing New York's. According to the distributor, "the filmmakers had always wanted to deliver the movie to the people who helped them make it." As of March 2011, the film had grossed over $6.5 million in cinema ticket sales in the U.S. and nearly $2.2 million internationally.
Awards
The film won the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic Film and the Best Screenplay Award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. It also received two awards at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival in Germany. At the 2010 Stockholm International Film FestivalStockholm International Film Festival
The Stockholm International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Stockholm, Sweden. It was launched in 1990 and has been held every year in the second half of November...
, it won the awards for Best Film, Best Actress (Lawrence) and the Fipresci Prize.
The film won Best Feature and Best Ensemble Performance at the 2010 Gotham Awards
Gotham Independent Film Awards 2010
The 20th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were presented on November 29, 2010.-Best Feature:Winter's Bone*Black Swan*Blue Valentine*The Kids Are All Right*Let Me In-Best Ensemble Performance:Winter's Bone...
. It earned seven nominations at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress.
External links
- Interview with John Hawkes ("Teardrop") at Quietearth.us
- Moon, Michael and Colin Talley. "Life in a Shatter Zone: Debra Granik's Film Winter's Bone." Southern Spaces, December 6, 2010.