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Capsule summary: ‘Winter’s Bone’
‘Winter’s Bone’
The kind of dirty-fingernailed, underdog-championing film often overpraised by festivalgoers, “Winter’s Bone” has atmosphere and occasional jolts but takes its time building up any narrative momentum.
The Ozarks-set tale of a high school girl, Ree, who goes hunting for her vanished crank-brewing father in order to save the family’s meager homestead, “Bone” puts its heroine through the wringer. Lead actress Jennifer Lawrence holds her own against nasty hillbillies, but doesn’t quite summon the charisma to keep us engaged during the plot’s lax moments. The arrival of John Hawkes, as a morally more-than-ambiguous uncle who helps Ree in her search, keeps the movie from drowning under its bleak weight.
“Winter’s Bone” won the Grand Jury Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting awards at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
Screenings: 4:15 p.m. Sunday, Alamo South; Also, 7 p.m. Thursday, Alamo South.
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By susan
March 18, 2010 6:59 PM | Link to this
congratulations John DeFore! You are the only person that was able to cough up criticism for A WInters Bone. I suppose Variety, Hollywood Reporter and all the other experts in the field. I’d suggest you don’t quit your day job just yet.