Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that Winter's Bone -- a grim drama about a brave, resourceful 17-year-old heroine -- is not overly violent, but has a constant, simmering promise of violence, with lots of guns and threats, even toward children. Drugs and smoking are ever-present, if not always seen onscreen, since the action is set in a drug-making community. There is strong, but not constant language, including multiple uses of "s--t" and a few uses of "f--k." Aside from the gloomy tone, however, the character of Ree is incredibly admirable, and the importance of family becomes a strong theme.
Sexual
Content
Some very infrequent language and mild suggestion.
Violence
Very little graphic violence, but the movie is filled with the simmering, realistic threat of violence. Characters are always flashing guns, and animals are shot, killed and skinned (for eating). A character teaches two young kids how to shoot guns safely. More than once, adult characters threaten children and teens. One adult character wraps his hands around a teenage girl's throat. The teenage girl is later beaten up, but this occurs offscreen. We only see her cuts and bruises. Finally, there's a somewhat gruesome sequence involving cutting the hands off of a corpse with a chainsaw; the corpse is under water and not much is actually visible, but the scene is powerfully suggestive.
Language
Language is not constant, but is occasionally very strong, including a few uses of "f--k" and many uses of "s--t." Otherwise, we hear "ass" several times, and "t-ts" once. We also hear "balls," "go to hell," "son of a bitch," and "damn."
Social
Behavior
The movie is relentlessly downbeat, but it does have a positive slant. The heroine is only 17 and has found herself in charge of raising her two younger siblings. Given a difficult problem to solve, she musters up courage, faces her fears, and marches into danger. There's also a secondary, but equally powerful message about the importance of family.
Consumerism
Not applicable
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
Most of the characters are drug makers and drug dealers, except for the main characters. The teen girl very deliberately avoids drugs and frowns upon them, except for one scene in which she accepts a "doobie." The other characters seem to make their own "crank" in homemade meth labs. We don't see any of this onscreen, but there are many references to it, including the terms "cooking" and "cooking crank." An older character snorts coke onscreen, and smokes several cigarettes. A character offers a "line" and to "blow some smoke." And another character mentions marijuana. Some drinking and smoking.
