SLOW-burning drama Winter’s Bone is Richard Bryson’s pick of the DVDs to watch this week.

Winter’s Bone (Artificial Eye, �15.99)

A favourite with film critics this unflinching tale of an Ozark mountain girl hunting down her drug-dealing father for the good of her family (the central role is exceptionally well played by Jennifer Lawrence) is a slow-burn drama that needs patience to sit through.

Lawrence plays 17 year-old Ree Dolly embarking on a mission to find her father in the stark and hostile landscape of the Ozark Woods, Missouri.

Having used the family home as leverage to secure bail and then disappearing without a trace, Ree’s father has left his family with nothing but the prospect of eviction.

As carer for a sick mother and two young siblings, Ree realises that her only option is to track down her father – or his body - in order to save the house from repossession and secure her family’s future.

She weaves her way through a tight-knit, close-lipped community, as hostile as the landscape around her.

But she must challenge her outlaw kin’s code of silence in order to learn the truth.

RICHARD BRYSON