04/02/11…….Grand Jury Prize winner at Thame Cinema this FRIDAY

THIS week’s film is to be shown on FRIDAY as the Thame Players Theatre is being used for a production on Saturday. The film is WINTER’S BONE – USA 2010, 100 minutes 15 cert, Directed by Debra Granik, Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Dale Dickey, Garret Dillahunt, John Hawkes,

Adapted from Daniel Woodrell’s novel, and winner of the Grand Jury prize at last year’s Sundance film festival, Granik’s film is a powerfully moving story of loyalty, love and courage. Jennifer Lawrence stars as Ree Dolly, a 17 year old doing her best to give her two younger siblings a decent upbringing in the remote Ozark mountain region of northern Arkansas. This is a community of poor white people, descendents of 18th century settlers, who have lived in tight-knit clannish isolation for centuries, and crystal meth has taken the place once occupied by illicit liquor.

Ree’s father, Jessop, has used the family’s house to secure bail but has failed to turn up for his court hearing and gone on the run. Faced with homelessness, a desperate Ree is forced to turn bounty hunter. But hers is a community long suspicious of the law, and rules of kinship – and the more brutal necessities of shady drug trafficking – mean that people close ranks, enquiries are met with mounting hostility, and veiled threats escalate into violent attempts to subdue her. This is a quiet, cautious film, a portrait of a unique culture that does not resort to clich