1st Look: Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone

Despite knowing next to nothing about the project via the trades, I had a pretty good feeling that we’d find Debra Granik’s sophomore feature in Park City this year. Her first feature, Down to the Bone, was crowned with the fest jewels at the festival back in 2004, Vera Farmiga, the film’s lead benefitted tremendously from the push, but oddly enough, it received little fanfare when it came time to its theatrical play. I’m thinking this incredible young actress (Jennifer Lawrence) who I first discovered in Guillermo Arriaga’s The Burning Plain, will break out at the fest much like Farmiga did with this other “Bone”.

Written by Granik and based on a 2006 novel of the same name by Daniel Woodrell, Winter’s Bone centers on 16-year-old Ree Dolly (Lawrence), who hails from a large family of Ozark meth cookers. When her no-good, methamphetamine-cooking father (John Hawkes) goes missing — after using the family home as collateral to post bond — Ree must either bring him back alive or prove that he’s dead. Otherwise the authorities will seize the family’s house, throwing Ree, her two younger brothers and their mentally ill mother out into the cold.

The pic will compete in the U.S Dramatic Competition.