Realistic, melancholic backwoods drama

One reviewer fittingly said "There is Barely a Smile in this Study of the Backwoods with its Hypocrisy of Clannish Detachment" while another succinctly summed it up as "Hillbilly Corleone Family." That's "Winter's Bone" in a nutshell, an independent film hailed by critics everywhere. It's a grim, desperate rural mountains drama.

While the story's one-dimensionally bleak and filled with mumbling ambiguities, I appreciate the film because it provides a window into illegal methamphetamine manufacturing in rural communities, the drug version of moonshine. I also liked how unpredictable certain parts were, like the tense stand-off with the Sheriff and the macabre chainsaw sequence. My wife, however, thought it was a bore because it was too one-dimensional and bleak. Needless to say, if you need cheering up, avoid it like the plague.

This was supposedly Jennifer Lawrence's break-out movie. While I give it a marginal thumbs-up, it's overrated IMHO. An independent movie with the same tone and more redeeming qualities is 2008's "Frozen River."

It was shot in Taney County and Christian County in southern Missouri not far from the border of Arkansas.