Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Kevin Breznahan, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, Sheryl Lee, Lauren Sweetser, Tate Taylor.
★★★★
100 mins
AWINNER at the 2010 Sundance festival and much admired at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, director Debra Granik’s film has the power to move from art house to mainstream cinemas given sufficient push.
Her second feature, which is based on a best-selling novel by Daniel Woodrell, is a naturalistic thriller that boasts a fine central performance from relative newcomer Jennifer Lawrence that has already led some to suggest that she’s a dead cert for an Oscar best actress nomination She plays 17-year-old Ree Dolly, who is left to look after her sick mother and younger brother and sister after her father does a runner, but not before he’s used the family home as security for bail.
Ree is a determined, resourceful young lady who realises that the only way to save the family and stop their home from being taken away is to find her father - dead or alive.
It’s a task she takes on with grim determination amid the hostile landscape of the Ozark Woods in Missouri. The tight-knit, close-lipped community isn’t about to help her break the code of silence surrounding her father’s disappearance.
Relatives and friends warn her off, some using violence as well as strong words but nothing will deter the determined Ree.
The cast of mostly unknowns – although you might recognise Sheryl Lee, alias Laura Palmer in Twin Peaks – lend an authenticity to this chilling drama.
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