At first glance, Winter's Bone seems to be one of those gritty movies that are so popular at film festivals on the coasts about people with hard lives who live in the middle of the country. Like Frozen River, that other movie about a family trying to make ends meet when Father disappears, Winter's Bone takes place in the winter, casting darkness over the entire film, and shows the dark, cramped homes of non-coastal elites. Like Frozen River, Winter's Bone reveals a hidden society to the protagonist and to the audience. But unlike Frozen River, where a middle-aged protagonist purposefully enters the world of people-smuggling, Winter's Bone tracks one girl's coming of age with her unwitting discovery of an underground network of methamphetamine producers.Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is a seventeen year old Missourian who goes on a quest to find her father as his court date approaches when she learns that he put their entire property as collateral for his bond. Unfortunately for Ree, she's also responsible for two younger siblings, Sonny and Ashley, as well as their mentally ill mother. Despite Ree's youth, the audience doesn't expect this to be a coming of age movie, since Ree already seems quite competent and hard-nosed at the beginning of the film. We see her cooking breakfast, teaching her siblings aphorisms "Never ask for what should be offered," and shooting and skinning squirrels.
After learning about her father, though, Ree's hard, yet routine, days are broken. She goes on a quest to speak with everyone known acquaintance of her father's. We soon realize that many of these folks are fellow meth addicts or dealers. Ree soon learns that many of these folks have secrets to hide. Her father's older brother, Teardrop (John Hawkes), aggressively holds her neck to caution her about talking to people. It's hard to know early on if he's protecting himself, or protecting Ree. Ree's next door neighbor tries to convince her that her dad died in a meth lab explosion.
As Ree's search continues, she unravels a network of hidden rules and hierarchies that govern this underground society. Two rules are ultimately important: loyalty, and the ability to forget what one's seen. But in contrast to a typical fish out of water story, the world that Ree uncovers has been right in front of her all along. She is a product of it all along without knowing it. As she is put through a series of trials to test her loyalty, we wonder if being born into a society of underground drug pushers will be enough to save her from them.
