Winter's Bone Has Real Oscar Potential

Our late night trip to the cinema did not disappoint and Winter's Bone proved well worth staying up late for.

Whether the sparse attendance at Vue was vindication of the multiplex chain's decision to give the film just one showing or the result of that showing being scheduled at 10.30pm, there's no denying that those who contributed about thirty quid in total to the cinema's coffers certainly got their money's worth.


A cast of unknowns is led by Jennifer Lawrence (surely an Oscar nominee) as teenage daughter Ree, abandoned by a neer do well father and left to look after two young siblings and her dementia suffering mother. The errant dad has used the family shack and adjoining land as surety for bail and when he goes missing the family is faced with eviction and homelessness. The film charts Ree's attempts to trace her waster father and save her home in the bleak cold of the Ozark mountain region. There's another fine performance from John Hawkes as her drug addicted uncle "Teardrop".Hawkes puts such malice into an off screen warning "I've told you once"...."with my mouth" that you know pretty well that you wouldn't be pushing the point any further.


The cast are, without exception, totally convincing and any viewer would be forgiven for thinking this was somehow for real. The Ozarks' hillbilly inhabitants live in such squalor that trailer park trash would consider themselves royalty and stay at home mums on the higher tax band might think twice about moaning about the potential loss of their child benefits. The film moves with pace and has an excellent country soundtrack (shades of Deliverance) and I can heartily recommend it to anyone who gets the (slim) chance to go and see it. Five stars for me.





Before Winter's Bone we went to see "Buried". This is a highly unusual film set entirely within the confines of a coffin. Paul, an American truck driver working in Iraq (Ryan Reynolds), is the only actor on screen with the rest of the cast appearing in voice only. Paul wakes from concussion to find that his assailants have buried him alive leaving him with just a cigarette lighter for light and a mobile phone through which to channel their ransom demands and instructions. It's not a film for the claustrophobic but it manages to hold your attention throughout the entire ninety or so minutes. I could see this drama working well as a stage play as the audience gets drawn into the shocking reality of the situation. Reynolds plays the character well although he has too much rage for my liking but as a study in cynical corporate personnel relations it will make anyone thinking of a spell working in one of the world's hotspots such as Iraq or Afghanistan think more than twice before signing on the dotted line. Whoever pitched this "It's one man in a coffin for ninety minutes" and managed to sell it, is a genius but his or her genius is rewarded with a very watchable and thought provoking drama.

After weeks when things seemed to be constantly going wrong I finally had a bit of luck yesterday when this fine porcelain bowl purchased on eBay for £9.99 plus p&p turned up. Trawling through eBay for wrongly identified pieces is a little like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack and for every gem there's a thousand or more items that are either correctly catalogued or over priced. It's a bit like traipsing around a muddy field at a car boot sale where week after week turns up zilch but once a year there's something good. Anyway, this super bowl looks brand new and consequently was not listed as the 250 year old antique that it is. I would feel uncomfortable if the seller were an amateur but as it came from a ceramics specialist I have no such qualms. Ten years ago this might have fetched a four figure sum but collectors of antique porcelain are a dying breed today and its value is now probably less than half of that. None the less a nice find for a change.


I'll finish today with a mention of the new series of son Paul's show "A League Of Their Own". Starring James Corden, Freddie Flintoff, John Bishop, Jamie Redknapp and Georgie Thompson plus guests it airs at 10pm tonight on Sky1. Sky have a great line up this evening with "The Simpsons", "Modern Family" and "An Idiot Abroad" leading into "League". The show has a later slot this time around as some of the humour is pretty adult. We went to two recordings and it's guaranteed to raise a smile. Here's a clip from the last series.