Winter's Bone: A movie

We watched this highly recommended movie last night and loved it.  Set in a depressed, rural part of Missouri, it follows the difficulties of 17 year old Ree Dolly, her attempts to find her missing father, Jessup, a meth dealer, and is helped by her Uncle, Tear Drop.  The photography is stunning, a picture of what life must really be like in poor, white rural America, depressing indeed, like something out of Walker Evans depression photos.  The movie almost, at this distance, seems like it's been filmed in black and white.  The young actress who plays Ree steals the film, so real is she, along with her younger brother and sister.  The setting seems so perfectly white trashy that I wonder if it's real or made up, from the trash, junk cars, abandoned metal parts, outside the homes and trailers, to the inside, a mess with dishes still to be washed, clothes to be picked up, windows to be fixed, beds to be made, littered with kids or the elderly, passive and emotionless.  Even the out doors is later fall, early winter, stark, treeless, and gray.  Ree must find her father to save the follow homestead, put up as bond by her Daddy.  We soon realize he's mostly likely dead, a result of his being a snitch, and Ree must some how prove he's dead to save the family and her land.  The most terrifying scene revolves around her finding her Daddy's body, along with three other mountain women, in a swamp.  Needless to say, though the setting and story is depressing, the acting, the tenderness of Ree towards her siblings, the final integrity of her uncle and the mountain people, saves the movie and keeps it from just being another depressing movie.  When it was over, Evie and I both felt drained but also content, knowing that there are still great movies out there, that it's depiction of the underclass is about as close to reality as you can get with out actually living the life.  All Americans ought to see this movie, see how people struggle to survive, and many if all have a part worth admiring.