Review – Winter’s Bone

This movie is an extended, unpleasant lesson in Ozark ethics codes. When a 17-year-old girl’s family faces eviction from their shack, she sets out in search of her wayward father who put the place up as security for a bail bond. Along the way she must make her way through no end of elaborate exchanges with her fellow rustics, trying to get them to tell her what apparently nobody wants her to know. The result is approximately 15 minutes’ worth of mystery drawn out to feature length by a great big load of awkwardness. Though the production is over-arty by far, the scenery is pretty in a bleak way. I just wish it had been a little more “tell me a story” and a little less Boogen Emily Post. Mildly amusing