Winter's Bone (2010)

This is a powerful film.
Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) is keeping her family together. Her mother, Connie and two younger siblings, Sonny (Isaiah Stone) and Ashlee (Ashlee Thompson). Her father, who, like so many others in the rural part of the country, runs a meth lab. The conflict arises early, with the arrival of the sheriff Baskin (Garret Dillahunt) to tell her mother that if her father misses his court date, then the house and land will be gone as he put it up for his bond.
This sets her on a quest to find him, regardless of what it takes. She visits everyone, from her meth-addicted uncle Teardrop (John Hawkes), who goes from being somewhat cruel, as he fiercely grabs Ree's head to warn her not to go looking for trouble. However, later when Ree does get into trouble, he comes to her aid and helps her out by giving her money. He, like everyone else in the film, has his own set of morals.
Ree doesn't have an easy journey, as she is nearly killed because she wanted to gleam information from the back mountain mob boss, Thump Milton. His wife, Merab (Dale Dickey) is kind to her at first, and tells her to stay away, but later Ree hunts Thump down at an animal auction. Needless to say, Merab and her sisters beat Ree up horribly after this because she failed to listen to their advice. But they didn't fully understand the reason why Ree needed to find her father.
Both Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes received Oscar nominations for their roles here (as did the film itself and the screenplay and they were deserved) and they (especially Lawrence) fully deserved it. Ree is a strong character, killing squirrels and cooking stews for her family and teaching her siblings to do the same. She is responsible for them. Yet, she wants to join the army for the money, really no other reason. Fortunately, because she is only seventeen, she is too young to sign her life away, which is good as who knows what would happen to her younger siblings without her around.
The neighbors offer to take her brother off their hands, but she refuses this offer. She is also upset that they don't want her younger sister.
The part of the country depicted in this book is crude. The people seem to live by their own moral code. If someone betrayed the community, then they take care of it, even going against the sheriff. At times they are nice, as her neighbor often brings over food for the family but they can turn on you if you betray them. It is an awful life.
In the end, the ending is a stunner and the story is so complex that I can't figure out all the pieces and how they fit together yet because the ending is never spelled out, you actually have to think to figure out what happened to Jessup Dolly. The ending is, fortunately, a rather happy one, considering the depressed nature of the film. But when it comes to a film with a young, strong female heroine, you can't get much better than Winter's Bone. Grade: A-