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As Winter's Bone begins, we see Ree Dolly waking her brother and sister up, making them breakfast. At first one might wonder if she's a very young single mom, but soon it's revealed that she cares for her catatonic mother as well. The four live in a rickety old home the Ozarks, and Ree has dreams of joining the military so that she can earn a lot of money to provide for her family. Unfortunately, an officer shows up at her door to inform the family that her missing father has a court hearing coming up, and if he doesn't show, they will lose their house because he put it up to raise his bail money. Not knowing how else she can help her family, Ree goes looking for her father; but the more she looks, the more warnings she receives that she's treading into dangerous territory by trying to find out why he has disappeared.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Ree, and I love the way she portrays the character. Ree is strong because she has to be. She keeps following leads and doesn't let others intimidate her - even her uncle (played strikingly by John Hawkes), who obviously knows more than he is willing to reveal. Ree keeps walking, keeps asking, and keeps trying to find some sort of support from blood relatives.

What I appreciate about Winter's Bone is how it moves along at a steady pace without resorting to dramatics to keep the audience interested. The setting alone is an environment that one doesn't see often in movies. It's not exaggerated; it just is what it is. The same can be said of all of the characters. In a way, one could say that the drug dealers of Ree's town have a set up like any we've seen in bigger, flashier movies. There's obviously a man in charge, and it's hard to get an audience with him. He has his own bodyguards, and he has his own lackeys who do his business for him. But this is no Godfather or Scarface, and although those movies involve much larger scale drug deals, that doesn't make those of Ree's town seem any less powerful. The danger level is the same - these people are deadly.

I feel like this review already says too much, although there are so many things I liked about the movie. Some people have compared it to Frozen River; let me just say that although the general premise is of a female searching for a missing male in order to save her house, the similarities end there, and Winter's Bone has a much better script. At any rate, I felt like this movie moved at just the right pace, had just the right tone, and really had me going as it reached its end. It's definitely a highlight for 2010 and will probably show up in my top ten, depending on what comes out in the fall.