This film has gotten quite a bit of attention since its Sundance best picture win, not all of it good. Much was made of the director Debra Granik’s virtual embedding in the Ozark community, of the film’s gritty, authentic realism. But I heard Monsieur Porterfield give a rather arch assessment of the film. Is he simply jealous of its success? Or was Sundance mistakenly dazzled by Frozen River part deux? I decided to see for myself.

The plotline is somewhat similar: a drug-dealing father runs off and leaves his family to fend for themselves. But in this case the slack is taken up by the teenage daughter (well played by Jennifer Lawrence). She fights to feed and care for her two younger siblings as well as her mentally-ill mother, barely getting by on squirrel meat and hand outs from neighbors. The breaking point comes when the sheriff delivers the news that their father has put the house and land up for bail. Faced with the loss of their home, and desperate to survive, she unflinchingly goes after him, and her search brings her into violent conflict with the local meth-dealing clan.

Despite some narrative parralels I wouldn’t really equate Winter’s Bone and Frozen River. The greatest similarity is the anchoring performances of the leads, in the previous case Melissa Leo’s Oscar-nominated turn, in this case Jennifer Lawrence. The sombre, clipped dialogue doesn’t give her much to work with but Lawrence brings a compelling depth to the role. Compared to the flinty women she comes up against, with faces cut like granite, she would seem to be at a disadvantage. But Lawrence draws a quiet strength from a deeper well, and the subtle emotions flitting across her face make her seem somehow more formidable than the heartless folk around her.

Perhaps the greatest difference is in the visual style – Winter’s Bone trades up. Instead of shaky, tinny video we get elegant compositions of silvery blues and grays. I heard the DP paid out of pocket to help finance the film, and his commitment to the material shows in the care he took. It looks beautiful.

Despite these strengths I can see where Porterfield is coming from. There is a borrowed feeling about the whole enterprise, as if Granik dared to go only so far. We never get an insider’s sense of how or why the community functions as it does, and treats with such cruelty a struggling young woman who only wants to care for her family.

For more go to wintersbonemovie.com.