This is the world of Winter's Bone. With an absent father and a withdrawn and depressed mother, 17 year-old Ree Dolly keeps her family together in a dirt poor rural area. She's taken aback however when the local Sheriff tells her that her father put up their house as collateral for his bail and unless he shows up for his trial in a week's time, they will lose it all. She knows her father is involved in the local drug trade and manufactures crystal meth, but everywhere she goes the message is the same: stay out of it and stop poking your nose in other people's business. She refuses to listen, even after her father's brother, Teardrop, tells her he's probably been killed. She pushes on, putting her own life in danger, for the sake of her family until the
truth, or enough of it, is revealed.
While this movie is dark, gritty and at times hard to watch it shows us a world that can be found. I watched, my mind began to recall certain people or places that seemed to fit neatly into this little world. It reminds us that, while this is a movie, there is a truth to the story. There are places where people are living off potatoes and dressing it ragged clothes and where people live in fear of their own relatives. Thing is this world is just outside our door. It makes you think about what you have.
Even when the movie ends in its own peaceful way, you know that this is not the end of the struggles for Ree Dolly or her small family. There is no "happily ever after" moment nor the promise that the now gentler Teardrop will stay to watch out for them. But there IS something. Hope. That's what keeps the Ree going. Hope that tomorrow will be better than the day before. Hope that she world will become a better place.
In the chill of Winter's Bone you can still find a faint glow.
interesting... I just wonder what hope really means in this context. If we know that Ree's struggles are not over (and we can assume she knows this, too) then what is her hope for? Hope that the struggles will be less harsh and less frequent? Or hope that maybe what she knows to be true is not? I don't want to sound like a pessimist... but I think this is something we need to think about when we talk about hope
ReplyDeleteHope is a funny thing. In a world that believes there is no point to our world or lives what does the average person hope for? They hope that that their struggles will eventually end, that all that they worked for will pay off. That tomorrow will be a better day in effect. What else could they hope for? What do you think?
ReplyDeletehmmm... yeah, in this world I guess the only realistic hope one could have is that things will be the best they possibly can be. It just gets weird when hope contradicts what one knows to be true or most likely to happen. If there is no reason to have hope, then hope is hopeless.
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