Last night I finally watched that film which has generated oh so much awe and acclaim: Winter’s Bone. I was expecting it to be really good, a true “Southern Gothic” masterpiece like Billy Bob Thornton’s Chrystal. And Deadwood alums Garret Dillahunt and John Hawkes were in it, so I thought it just had to be good.
Wow, was I ever wrong.
I could barely keep my eyes open through this atrociously boring, dragging, tedious piece of yak. There was absolutely zero tension in the film; I was not motivated by either acting charisma or writing talent to feel the slightest bit of interest in Ree’s quest to find her father.
The plot was totally disjointed and felt sloppily put together. In fact, I can’t even really remember what it was, and that is saying something because I tend to remember the plots of movies very clearly after I’ve seen them.
Yes, it was “atmospheric.” But this alone cannot save a film.
The film’s one good point was that it had very little music (I feel that music is greatly overused in movies and that less is almost always more, as in Dog Day Afternoon, unless the director is someone like Paul Thomas Anderson who can weave it into the film flawlessly.)
In conclusion…ugh, what a waste of time.
Anyone else feel this way?
(Oh…and, by the way - a dickwater high school in the Ozarks has M-14 rifles for their JROTC drill? Really?)
I just read the Wiki article on it, and based on that, and reviews here, I think I’d like the book, but nothing draws me into wanting to see it on film.
Also I should add, I often like “bleak” movies. I thought The Road was great. I like “Southern Gothic” movies, like Sling Blade and Chrystal, and “small town burnout” movies like *River’s Edge.*I like movies about sordid drug scenes; Spun, for instance.
I first saw it last May and it’s still my favorite movie of 2010 (out of 329 movies seen), so obviously I don’t feel the same way. Sorry you didn’t like it, but there’s a reason it got so much acclaim, and it’s not because those who liked it were deluded. Each to their own.
After reading all the acclaim about it here I was expecting something great, and I just don’t see what people love about it. I can appreciate that it was well-made, but to me it was just boring.
> (Oh…and, by the way - a dickwater high school in the Ozarks has M-14 rifles for
> their JROTC drill? Really?)
I thought one of the most realistic parts of the film was the emphasis that people of this rural area put on joining the military as one of the few ways that you could hope to escape the area. The film showed the JROTC in the high school and Ree talking with the military recruiter. That’s actually one of the things that’s drilled into you if you grew up in a relatively poor rural area, that the easiest way to escape is to join the military. They know that a few of the smartest students will go to some second-rate state university, but they will probably do nothing more afterwards than come back to the area and teach school.
What other way is there to escape? They might dream of being a great athlete who gets an athletic scholarship to be on a first-rate college sports team, but they also know how unlikely that is. If you go to a small rural high school, you won’t get the playing experience that someone at a larger high school does. Your chances of becoming a professional athlete are pretty much hopeless. Your chances of somehow getting into a top college on a purely academic basis are actually worse. Even, in the unlikely case that you had extremely good grades, SAT scores, teacher recommendations, etc., you would receive no encouragement from local people to try to get into some top college. You might even be told that you were a snob and a traitor for trying to do so.
Argent Towers, did you see it in a theater or at home?
I was absolutely riveted in the theater. In a darkened room with the screen occupying most of my field of vision, almost immediately I was thorougly absorbed into the isolated, desolate environment, and yes, that went a long way in creating empathy for Ree and the other characters. It was more than “atmospheric” IMO; this film made me feel as if I were *right there *to an extent few movies ever have, and I thought it was pretty incredible.
And I can totally understand a lot of that getting lost on a TV screen in your living room, with all the distractions and anchors to your real life around you. So your reaction, valid as it is, may have been different under different circumstances. (If you did see it in a theater, then I guess I just disagree with you. No biggie.)
I really liked the movie but I think it has been overpraised. The plot unfolds at a slow pace and if you are not invested with the characters I can see how you would think it was dull. The sense of place in this movie was one of the best things about it. It had such versimilitude compared to the average move. However, one thing that bumped me is that it was supposed to take place in the dead of winter, but you could never see anyone breathe like you do when it is really cold.
Argent Towers, while I didn’t actively hate Winter’s Bone, I did wonder why it was so highly acclaimed. I thought the performances (by Jennifer Lawrence, especially) were very good, but the movie as a whole just didn’t do it for me. So you’ve kinda got company.
Sampiro, I think one of the reasons it didn’t really do much for me is that it reminded me of the area where I grew up. The characters rang true and all, but maybe the familiarity made it less intriguing, I dunno. I saw stuff like that already.
When I criticized the movie’s accolades earlier, one of the comments sent my way was that slower-paced movies don’t work for everybody. While I agree with that, I loved The Straight Story (hard to believe that was a David Lynch film!). Movies don’t get much slower paced than that. So it wasn’t just the pacing, at least not for me.
It’s a perfectly fine film, well-made and well-acted, but I personally wouldn’t put it in the top movies of 2010. Again … personal opinion. That’s what makes America great!
> Again … personal opinion. That’s what makes America great!
Yes, and we all know that personal opinion doesn’t exist outside of the U.S. Everyone outside the U.S. is obviously just a robot with no internal thoughts.
I also saw the film in the theater and found it riveting.
I did not know who was in the movie beforehand and knew I recognized the guy playing Teardrop, but could not place him. Only after I looked the movie up on IMDB did I realize that was Sol Star from Deadwood, because it was such a different role. I thought he did a great job of being a menacing screen presence without being physically intimidating. He was very believable as semi-psychopathic drugged out badass. I actually thought his performance outshined Jennifer Lawrence’s, but she is also very good in the movie.
I read the book after seeing the movie. Other than a bit more information on some of the characters and some light changes (she has two brothers in the novel instead of a brother and sister for instance, the youngest of whom was fathered by a neighbor while her father was in jail and her mother was in a promiscuous phase it’s almost identically the same story- an extraordinarily close retelling for a movie.
Dale Dickey- the actress who played Merab (Thump’s wife) won an award for best supporting actress at the Independent Spirit Awards last week. Deservedly in my opinion.
This was supposed to be a light-hearted finish to my post. I sincerely intended no disrespect to the citizens of Denmark, Bosnia, Chad, Guatemala, Chile, or any of the other countries on this planet.
I liked it, but didn’t love it. I’d have liked a bit more story to fill the 100 minutes, but then, I saw it at home, so that probably made a big difference. Always nice to see Patty the Daytime Hooker in anything.
I liked it a lot. In fact, I thought it was rather fascinating. I read the book a few months ago, though, so I knew what to expect. Perhaps if I had no idea of the story, I might have felt differently.
