The 17 year old girl in “Winter’s Bone” learns that they are about to lose their shack in the Ozarks where she takes care of her younger brother and sister and her mentally-ill mother. Her meth-cooking father put it up for bail and he just missed his court date. She and the kids are broke and hungry, and soon they will be homeless. The girl is relentless in her effort to care for them.

The movie is without a false note, and draws you in the way “Hurt Locker” did. You find yourself walking the chilly paths with her as she stubbornly looks for a solution. I found myself saying, “she’s only trying to keep two kids alive, without any help from her mentally ill mother or absent dad,” but what really struck me was the love in the household. She tenderly brushes her mother’s hair and the kids try to take care of her when she is hurt.

It gave me a chance to notice how this would have felt in a household of danger, chaos, and shame. The feeling of a lack of resources, that we’re all gonna die. Of no help or bad advice from adults who hurt you and others, yet insist they love you. The cold gray palette, the skinny trees, no feed for the horse.

The Kansas City Star review captures the movie, and the reader comments to the NYTimes review are very meaty. I hope you see the picture. If you do, let me know what you think.