A 2010 mystery drama film directed by Debra Granik, based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell.
Jennifer Lawrence stars as 17-year-old Ree Dolly. With an absent father and a mentally ill mother, Ree is left to raise her two young siblings in a rural, Ozark community. One day, she learns that her father has put up the family home for his jail bond and disappeared. If Ree does not locate him within a few days, the family will be evicted. As Ree begins asking questions about her father's fate, she encounters increasingly violent resistance from local residents, all of whom are wrapped up in the meth trade. The film and novel share some similarities with the story of Antigone.
Tropes present in this work
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Ree is a brunette in the book, but Jennifer Lawrence kept her natural blond hair for the movie.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Ree and Little Arthur's attitude towards each other makes more sense if you've read the book and know that Little Arthur drugged and raped her before the events of the plot. The flashback scene where this is shown was Adapted Out, but the characters still act in a way that implies it. It is also never specifically stated in the film that Blond Milton is Sonny's father, though dialogue later in the movie alludes to it.
- Age Lift: Thump Milton's granddaughter Megan seems to be a teenager in the film but is somewhere in her twenties in the book.
- Adoption Is Not an Option: Inverted. Blond Milton suggests that he and Sonya adopt Sonny to help Ree out, and potentially Ashlee later. Ree flat-out refuses, but she seems more open to the idea by the time her situation gets more dire. She even speculates about asking Teardrop and Victoria to take Ashlee in.
- Awful Wedded Life: Gail had a kid with her teenage sweetheart, and now they're stuck as an unhappy married couple. When Ree notes that Gail was never so deferential before, Gail asserts that things change with marriage.
- Axe-Crazy: Teardrop has this reputation, despite being a relatively small, unassuming man. In his first scene, he suddenly snaps and grabs Ree's face in anger. Later, he smashes the truck of a local with an axe for pissing him off, inviting a feud between himself and that man's whole family. Still later, he gets into a Mexican Standoff with the sheriff seemingly out of simple annoyance, and the sheriff backs down, apparently wise to Teardrops' reputation.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Downplayed. Ree is savagely beaten—she even spits out a tooth—and for part of the film her face is a bloody mess. However, by the end of the film, she looks basically the same as she did at the beginning.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Practically all the people who hinder or physically deter Ree from her search for her father are actually members of her extended family.
- Big Sister Instinct: One of Ree's main motivations in the film is finding a way to provide for her two younger siblings.
- Bittersweet Ending: Ree saves the family home and gets a fat chunk of cash in the process. However, her father is dead, she's left to raise her siblings alone, and her uncle will probably get himself killed while taking revenge. Also, Ree was planning on joining the army as a way out of her dead-end town, and now she will have to stay.
- Blatant Lies: Blond Milton drives Ree to a blown-out meth lab, hoping to convince her that this is the fate that befell Jessup. She refuses to believe him because Jessup is known for taking measures to avoid such explosions. This is confirmed when she looks at the weeds growing on the site, which are far too high for the explosion to have been recent.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: When Ree is cleaning herself up after the beating.
- Bluegrass: Ree goes to visit Jessup's ex-girlfriend during her mother's birthday party, where she and the guests are engaged in a "picking session." Appropriately, April's mother is played by musician and Ozark folklorist Marideth Sisco.
- Chest of Medals: Thump's vest full of patches and medals marks him as the supreme of the Milton brothers.
- Confirmed Bachelor: In the book, Ree tells Teardrop that she has no desire to marry. Not surprising, given what she's seen of marriages in her corner of the world.
- Crapsack World: The Ozarks are presented as a really terrible place to live. The camera frequently lingers on the Scenery Gorn of dilapidated buildings and barren wasteland wherever Ree goes.
- Determinator: Nothing will stop Ree from saving the family home. Nothing.
- Dirty Cop: It turns out that Sheriff Baskin is responsible for Jessup's status as an informer getting around.
- Disappeared Dad: The main conflict; Ree needs to find out what happened to her father.
- The Dreaded:
- Thump Milton is a meth kingpin with a bare minimum of scruples and a Chest of Medals that hint his bite is worse than his bark. No one risks pissing him off unless they're truly desperate, and his own granddaughter says that she's scared he'll kill her if she does too much to help Ree.
- Ree's uncle Teardrop is a violent, intimidating felon. When he arrives at the Milton's ranch, the various men are obviously concerned and scramble to arm themselves.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Ree is introduced doing all of the household chores, getting her siblings ready for school, and quizzing them on their studies, establishing that she's a hardworking girl who's gotten a Promotion to Parent.
- Teardrop violently grabs hold of Ree's head when she gets on his nerves, establishing him as a violent and unpredictable man.
- Extreme Doormat: The once-spirited Gail has become a passive wife who simply accepts every decree from her loser husband. Ree points this out, but Gail is resigned to her fate.
- Fever Dream Episode: Ree has one after being beaten, reflecting her fears about losing the woods and home.
- Fluffy the Terrible:
- "Teardrop." Real name: Haslam Dolly. Named for his teardrop tattoos, a common indicator that someone has served in prison.
- "Thump," although everyone in the extended family treats it as a Name To Run Away From
- Flyover Country: The film presents a pretty harrowing worm's eye view of just what is going on in some of those tiny Southern/Midwest towns.
- Food Slap: The first time Ree goes to Thump's house, Merab gives her a mug of soup to drink. The second time, Merab appears with another mug, but this time she flings the contents in Ree's face.
- Gender Flip: In the novel, Ree had two younger brothers. In the film version, one of them is a sister instead.
- Get Out!: Merab, when Ree snarks on Thump for refusing to talk with her.
- The Ghost: Ree's father, Jessup Dolly, never makes an on-screen appearance. The closest are his literal dead, cold hands and a few old pictures of him.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The camera focuses on Ree's crying face as the women chainsaw Jessup's hands off his corpse.
- Hayseed Name: Many. One unseen character is named "Buster Leroy."
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Ree can be very rude and abrasive, but she mostly just wants what's best for her siblings.
- Teardrop is a real bastard in the beginning of the film, but he shows stronger family loyalty toward the end despite also being somewhat Ax-Crazy. He ends up rescuing Ree from the Miltons and accepts the blame for any future offenses she makes.
- Merab Milton. In spite of her sharp tongue and the brutal beatdown she gives to Ree, she's the most affected when Ree reveals her predicament, and she spearheads the endeavor to solve Ree's problem and end the whole ordeal.
- Kid Detective: Ree is helped and hindered by a number of people as she tries to work out what actually happened to her father, and displays a remarkable level of perceptiveness when deciphering who's telling her the truth and who isn't.
- Living Is More than Surviving: Averted. Ree is willing to sacrifice her education, her personal safety, and any notion of principle if it means she can afford to care for mother and siblings. Even her goal of joining the army mostly comes down to the enlistment bonus.
- Lost Pet Grievance: Downplayed. Ree's horse isn't going far, just to her neighbor's farm, but nonetheless Ree has to give her away because she can't afford to feed her, and she's visibly upset about it.
- Manly Men Can Hunt: Ree encourages Sonny not to be afraid to rip the entrails out of a squirrel they've shot.
- Meaningful Name: Merab shares her name with a Biblical character whose father arranges her marriage in an effort to get another man killed, then marries her off to another man after this plan backfires, after which she has five sons and disappears from the story. It's only fitting that the name reappears in a story about a community in which women exist at the mercy of men's decisions.
- Meta Casting:
- The soldier Ree talks to is a real-life Army recruiter. Their conversation was unscripted, and he responded to her inquiries as if talking to a real potential recruit.
- The two children who play Ree's younger siblings actually lived in the house where much of the filming took place. The gender of one of the children was changed from the book (wherein both of Ree's siblings were boys) in order to accommodate the little girl.
- Mexican Standoff: Teardrop refuses to exit his vehicle to speak with the sheriff and instead grabs a rifle. The sheriff backs down and lets him drive away.
- The Mistress:
- April, Jessup's ex-girlfriend. Ree is well aware of this relationship and beyond having any real feelings about it.
- Heather, Floyd's ex-girlfriend. Gail hates that Floyd continues to sleep with her, but she gives up on ever putting an end to it.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Thump, the patriarch of the drug-cooking family.
- No Communities Were Harmed: The precise setting of the movie is hard to pin down, but an announcement over the school PA system places it somewhere near Forsyth, Missouri, 14 miles northeast of Branson.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Ree receives one from the women of the Milton family for persisting in trying to speak with Thump after having been warned not to.
- The Napoleon: Teardrop, who is certainly not large or muscular, seems to inspire a healthy amount of fear.
- Noodle Incident: It is implied but never confirmed that that the reason Jessup was killed was because he was cornered by the law and ratted people out because of that.
- One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Ree's friend Gail got pregnant from a two-night stand pregnancy, being Floyd's rebound girl for two nights when he and his girlfriend where fighting, before he went back to her, only to end up having to marry Gail in a Shotgun Wedding after her pregnancy became apparent. Something which has not provided them the basis for a happy marriage.
- Parental Abandonment: Jessup abandons his family to fend for themselves. Ree's mother's insanity could also be seen as a version of this. In the book, the characters openly consider her insanity at least partly a deliberate choice.
- The Patriarch: Thump has been described as an "Evil Uncle Jesse".
- Patriotic Fervor: Hinted at around the edges. Homes display pictures of family members in the service. The local watering hole has a large, patriotic mural. Bar denizens wear clothing decorated with American flags and eagles. The school ROTC is very popular. Ree herself has been considering joining the Army, and the impending loss of the family homestead adds urgency to the matter.
- Pet the Dog: After seeing Ree break down while retrieving her dead father's hands, Merab wraps her coat around the girl and gently tells her to "let it go."
- Platonic Life-Partners: Ree and Gail, at least in the movie. In the book they've engaged in some experimentation but ultimately suppressed any true attraction.
- Police Are Useless: The local sheriff is crooked and commands absolutely no respect from the residents.
- Promotion to Parent: Dad's gone and Mom's sick. Ree is in charge of taking care of her siblings now.
- Rape and Revenge: Discussed in the book. Ree thinks Jessup would have shot Little Arthur for drugging and raping her if she had come to him with her torn panties and a few tears.
- Real Is Brown: The story is set, and was filmed, in rural Missouri in the winter. As such, there's hardly any color to be seen.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The army recruiter is as sympathetic and helpful to Ree as an unconnected adult can be. The bail bondsman is also as helpful as he can be, considering he's just doing his job.
- Revenge: Ree and Teardrop both repeatedly state that they have no interest in revenge if it turns out that Jessup has been murdered. In reality, Teardrop asks Ree never to reveal Jessup's murderer if she finds out, with the understanding that he would be honor-bound to kill them or die trying. He figures it out anyway.
- Rural Gangsters: The entire adult population of Ree's town, as far as we can tell.
- Scenery Gorn: Rural Missouri in winter is nothing but dilapidated buildings, junk-strewn yards, and grey countryside.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: While the story takes place in modern-day America, where social services exist, in theory, it's entirely realistic that they'd be poorly represented in an insular and meth-ravaged community in the rural Ozarks. Ree considers it her responsibility to take care of her siblings, with her parents missing or incapable, and no one else who's around seems to question this.
- Soup of Poverty: Ree prepares a stew of deer meat, potatoes, and other ingredients that Sonya brings to her. In the book she notes that all the food in Sonya's box will last the family about four days.
- Southern Gothic: While technically set in the Midwest (specifically the Ozarks of Missouri), the setting is an unfriendly, twisted town with an eerie swamp full of twisted decay nearby. There are also supernatural elements, and bits of folklore and legend are woven into the novel.
- The Speechless: Connie, Ree's mother, who appears to have lost the power of speech as a result of mental breakdown. She can speak occasionally in the book, but often the things she says make no sense, and she shuts down when she really ought to say something.
- Swamps Are Evil: Jessup's family's dumping ground is the swamp. Eventually, it's where Ree finds the dead body of her father.
- Teen Pregnancy: Very common in Ree's world. When she visits the school, she passes a parenting class for students, and her best friend had to drop out of school and get married when she got pregnant.
- The Tooth Hurts: Ree spits out a tooth after Merab and her sisters savagely beat her. Treated fairly realistically. She loses blood and has to take painkillers.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Ree's quest to locate her father is complicated by the fact that virtually everyone is connected in some way to the meth trade, so asking questions immediately puts a target on Ree's back.
- The Unreveal: While Teardrop does find out who killed Jessup, it's never revealed which, if any, of the characters Ree interacted with did it, though it's heavily implied that Thump Milton or his goons were directly involved.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: The men won't. So the women beat Ree instead. Amusingly, they are careful to tell this to Teardrop.
