Academy Awards Best Picture Focus: 'Winter's Bone'

In Yidio's Academy Awards Best Picture Focus section, we take an in-depth look at all 10 films nominated for the 2011 Oscar. Today's featured film is "Winter's Bone," the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner for Best Picture that takes a hyper-realistic look at the meth scene in the Ozarks, with a breakout performance by young soon-to-be-starlet Jennifer Lawrence.

About the Film

"Winter's Bone" tells the story of Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence), a high-school-aged girl living in the poorest part of the Ozarks, who is forced to navigate through the hard-scrabbled terrain of the region's meth culture to try and hunt down her father so she can keep her family alive and intact. Based on a 2006 novel by Daniel Woodrell (also called "Winter's Bone"), the film is a hyper-realistic protrayal of the culture and landscape in one of the poorest parts of the country. Lawrence's portrayal of a young girl trying to save her family from being literally torn apart is one of the most talked-about acting performances of the year.

Why the Nomination?

I'm not sure how many of the Academy members have actually been to the real honest-to-god Ozarks, but I have. My parents live down near the border of southern Missouri and Arkansas. It's gorgeous country filled with beautiful lakes, gorgeous rambling hills and trees, great people and a whole lot of poverty. Oh and meth. Unfortunately lots and lots of meth.

Turns out when a bunch of people with no money and no real jobs to speak of settle down in an area with lots of secluded and heavily-wooded space, they'll figure out a way to earn cash, and we ain't talkin' 'bout buildin' birdhouses neither. Meth's more profitable to make than marijuana and can be harder for authorities to track, so there you are.

Anyway, while a few of the characters in "Winter's Bone" are a bit....well...caricaturish, most of the personalities in the film are spot on. Jennifer Lawrence has been getting loads of well-deserved kudos for her performance, but the supporting cast is equally adept, particularly John Hawkes, who received an Oscar nomination of his own for Best Supporting Actor. Hawkes' role as the callous and stubbornly self-sufficient meth-addict uncle may be the most subtle and nuanced performance of the bunch, and it would be great to see him play the sleeper role in the Supporting Actor category.

Even with stellar performances from Lawrence and Hawkes, for me, what carried the film was the way that it captured an area of the country that has been completely ignored by the film world with brutal, unflinching honesty. The Ozarks landscape can be beautiful and sprawling, peaceful and idyllic, but also a little imposing. When Ree Dolly (Lawrence) is tromping through the woods looking for her Daddy, the countryside scenes were so familiar, it kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Other Awards Nominations

"Winter's Bone" was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (John Hawkes), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini) - not too shabby for a film shot on a miniscule $2 million budget. The film garnered six noms at the Independent Spirit Awards, including one for cinematographer Michael McDonough, whose stark vision of the Ozarks backwoods was the star of the show.

What Are the Chances?

Slim to none, but better than many. While this year looks to be a knockdown drag-out brawl between "The Social Network" and "The King's Speech," "Winter's Bone" stands the greatest chance of playing a "Hurt Locker" role, and picking up steam as the little indie that could. This low budget Sundance winner is the type of film that will get some good looks from Academy members once they've actually seen the movie, but realistically, the chance that this one grabs the Best Picture are as bleak as an Ozarks winter.

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Watch the Trailer for "Winter's Bone"