Jennifer Lawrence & John Hawkes

Adapted from Daniel Woodrell's novel, "Winter's Bone" takes place in a nasty, beautiful corner of the southern Missouri Ozarks. Here, when someone's cooking skills are mentioned, the phrase refers to a methamphetamine lab, not dinner. The land and its socioeconomics are not for the weak. And in 17-year-old Ree, a flinty survivor portrayed by the spectacularly talented young actress Jennifer Lawrence, a rural crime story finds its heart.

Like director Courtney Hunt's "Frozen River" two years ago, director and co-adapter Debra Granik's film sets a stern suspense narrative against a blessedly unconventional cinematic backdrop. "Winter's Bone" is an odyssey in which Ree, already taking care of her younger siblings while her mother beams in and out of a bone-deep depression, searches for her missing father. A bounty hunter is also looking for the man, who put the family home up for his bail bond. If Ree cannot locate her fearsome bum of a father, no more house. And then? Judging from what we see of Ree's neighbors and relatives, nothing but hard times and worse luck.

Granik and company are working a variation on one of Dashiell Hammett's "dirty town" scenarios, except here, there is no town -- only trees, hills and a collection of outlaws, meth-heads and secrets. As Ree pursues the truth behind her father's disappearance, her Uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes, wonderfully insinuating as a shell of a man who has somehow retained his wits) becomes her partner in sleuthing.

The director made "Down to the Bone" and co-wrote the "Winter's Bone" script with Anne Rosellini, blending professional actors (including Sheryl Lee, who played Laura Palmer in "Twin Peaks") with amateurs, many from the region in which this story unfolds. Granik and cinematographer Michael McDonough shot the picture on a digital RED camera, which offers unusual (and unusually crisp) qualities of sunlight and shade. It looks right. The film moves steadily toward a resolution and, for Ree, a glimmer of hope.

I wish "Winter's Bone" spent more time off-plot; virtually every sequence leads neat-and-square to the next piece of the puzzle. More interesting to me are the scenes such as the squirrel-skinning lesson Ree offers to her siblings. The way Lawrence captures a young woman's fear and resolve, often non-verbally, well ... this is a considerable talent well on her way to a great career. It's for performances like this that moviegoers find themselves taking a chance on a title that doesn't have a fast-food tie-in.

 

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"Winter's Bone" Movie Trailer

This tense, naturalistic thriller follows 17-year-old Ree Dolly as she confronts the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father, who has put up the family homestead for his bail. Featuring a star-making performance by Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone is sure to be one of the most-critically acclaimed films of the year.

 

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MPAA rating: R (for some drug material, language and violent content)

Running time: 1:40.

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence (Ree); John Hawkes (Teardrop); Kevin Breznahan (Little Arthur); Dale Dickey (Merab); Garret Dillahunt (Sheriff Baskin); Sheryl Lee (April).

Credits: Directed by Debra Granik; written by Granik and Anne Rosellini, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell; produced by Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin. A Roadside Attractions release.