Episode 26: Winter’s Bone
Justin:
Films are sometimes referred to as “moving pictures” and there have been few movies I’ve seen recently that lend themselves to that definition more than Debra Granik’s WINTER’S BONE. As great as Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, and some of the other supporting actors are in the movie, it’s the visuals that make this a memorable experience.
There are two images in particular that will likely be my lasting memory of this movie going forward. First, there is the incredibly tense scene between Hawkes’ Teardrop and the local sheriff, played by the always underused Garret Dillahunt. Granik shoots the image of Teardrop through the side-view mirror, using his reflection to emphasize what the sheriff would be seeing as the tension builds. As Teardrop moves his very-ready gun into view, everyone watching knows what the possibilities are and the only hopes and feelings you have as a viewer are for the sheriff to just back away… and once he does, you finally exhale. I’m willing to suggest that if Granik had just shot that in one wide shot from the front of the truck, the weight and tension wouldn’t have landed the same. It’s a special, special scene.
The other shot that I still can’t get out of my head is when Ree goes to visit Little Arthur early on in the movie. As she waits by herself for a moment, the camera hangs for an additional couple seconds on a lawn chair with four very noticeable bullet holes in the very thinly padded back, right around the place where someone’s heart might be located if they were sitting in said chair. The backstory in that shot is worth hours of running time alone and is the definition of the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It sets up everything Ree is about to endure in the hunt for her father and lets you know that the stakes for her and her family have never been higher.
And in just those two moving pictures alone, Granik establishes a familiar, moving, and impactful tone while also becoming truly memorable. And just like in LEAVE NO TRACE, another haunting work told about a similar world, her work is of extremely high quality because of her eye for these little moments. And I look forward to whatever she trains her vision on next.
