WINTER'S BONE (Debra Granik 2010)

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, it is good on a big screen.
There have been some complaints about the dialogue and I had some trouble myself. Granik has said it is very close to the Daniel Woodrell novel, which was so faithfully followed copies of it were given out in the local community. If it is to be rich and inventive, the talk has to be a bit hard to follow. When you're in a place like the rural Ozarks, you're going to miss some of what people are saying. As for violence, one would expect that in an environment of meth producers. I would not think excess and overstatement were weaknesses of WINTER'S BONE. I would say that its greatest weakness is that midway it is a bit hard to follow at times, and that it is so into itself it loses out on the chance of having a bit more mainstream accessibility. I don't know about weaknesses of post production but the audio was not as brilliant as the "meticulous natural sound" (my words) in Lance Hammer's BALLAST.