Winter's Bone (2010): The little film that created a star

Winter's Bone, 2010, directed by Debra Granik, streamed on Paramount+, 4.5 stars.

I guess I just wasn't paying attention. I can't think of any other reason why I missed this film in its day, or even why I had never even heard of it until now. I stumbled across it browsing through the menu at Paramount+ and put it in my watchlist because Jennifer Lawrence is prominent on the poster.

But I am thrilled that I discovered it now. Better late than never, right? What a fantastic little indie film, and what a fantastic star-making performance by Ms. Lawrence.

I didn't know until after I watched this that this was her first starring role -- and bagged her first Oscar nomination. I also learned after-viewing that this movie was a Best Picture nominee. Who knew? I didn't.

I loved this movie start to finish. Lawrence brought the goods as a poverty-stricken 16-year-old girl raising her two younger siblings in rural Southwest Missouri, near my collegiate and young-adulthood stomping grounds. And director Debra Granik captured the atmosphere, the looks, the sounds, the smells of that part of the world perfectly.

Winter's Bone, based on a book by prolific Ozarks novelist Daniel Woodrell, has Lawrence's character trying to find her father, who posted the family home as bond on a meth-cooking arrest and then vanished. The screenplay by Granik and Anne Rosellini reveals just enough of its secrets along the way to keep us thoroughly engaged.

Don't make the same mistake I almost did. Don't let this one get away. Find this movie and plant yourself in a comfortable seat for 100 minutes.

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