Based on Billy Lett's novel, "Where the Heart Is" is barely held together by good performances and characterizations. That being said, calling the scattershot plot 'overkill' is an understatement. I have not read the book of which it was based, but at times, it felt as if the the original author, creative but desperate, wrote a list of themes to add to her book and stitched them together into a melodramatic story that barely holds itself together.
Let's see...
1. Pregnancy
2. Natural Disasters
3.Alcoholism
4. Child Abuse
5. Kidnapping
Get the idea? If Billie Letts, and later, director Richard Jones, had stripped the plot a bit and concentrated on the relationships between the characters, "Where the Heart is" could have been a very good film. However, the endless string of improbabilities leading to emotional scenes help take it into merely 'watchable' territory.
Natalie Portman plays Novalee Nation, a undereducated young woman who is carrying her boyfriend Willy Jack's baby. At the start of the film, they leave their trailer park and head to a new home where she can have the baby. Willy Jack is the epitome of the white trash character (Seriously, the name? What would you guess?)
Impatient, coarse, and none too bright, he considers his girlfriend an inconvenience and talks to her the way you would a pet dog who wanted to go out. When they stop at a Wal-Mart so she can use the bathroom. When she comes back, he's gone.
Desperate and wandering the parking lot, Novalee meets a woman named Sister Husband, whose name, again, gives a pretty good idea what she's going to be like (Eccentric? Really.) Convinced Novalee is some old friend named Ruth Ann, she gives her a warm welcome and presents her with a live tree in a basket. Looking for a book on how to care for it, she asks the standoffish librarian, Forney, for information.
Not knowing where to go, she hides out in the Wal-Mart, using the stock as provisions and writing down what she's eaten for paying back. After a few days living like this, she begins going into labor right in the middle of the aisle. A mysterious person hears her screams, comes crashing into the store, and calls the ambulance.
After having a baby girl, Novalee unfortunately names the baby Americus, making you want to shake another warm-hearted eccentric who recommended something unconventional, and is taken in by Sister Husband and her older boyfriend.
She also meets Lexie (Ashley Judd,) a friendly nurse who calls her many children after snack foods (Prailine, Baby Ruth.) However it must have been decided that a sweet story of female bonding and self worth was not enough, so plot devices sends a series of disasters to befall our offbeat heroes.
Portman and other people's acting holds up this sappy, convoluted tale, which is too full of potentail to dismiss entirely. The character's are likable, if bit on the 'look! I'm too quirky!' side. After about a half- hour of 'working,' though, the sentimental drama becomes desperate to hold your interest, and ends up hurting itself (Rated PG-13.)
Recommendation- For a better chick flick adaptation full of female bonding and emotion (as well as lesbians and cannibalism,) watch Fried Green Tomatoes
Let's see...
1. Pregnancy
2. Natural Disasters
3.Alcoholism
4. Child Abuse
5. Kidnapping
Get the idea? If Billie Letts, and later, director Richard Jones, had stripped the plot a bit and concentrated on the relationships between the characters, "Where the Heart is" could have been a very good film. However, the endless string of improbabilities leading to emotional scenes help take it into merely 'watchable' territory.
Natalie Portman plays Novalee Nation, a undereducated young woman who is carrying her boyfriend Willy Jack's baby. At the start of the film, they leave their trailer park and head to a new home where she can have the baby. Willy Jack is the epitome of the white trash character (Seriously, the name? What would you guess?)
Impatient, coarse, and none too bright, he considers his girlfriend an inconvenience and talks to her the way you would a pet dog who wanted to go out. When they stop at a Wal-Mart so she can use the bathroom. When she comes back, he's gone.
Desperate and wandering the parking lot, Novalee meets a woman named Sister Husband, whose name, again, gives a pretty good idea what she's going to be like (Eccentric? Really.) Convinced Novalee is some old friend named Ruth Ann, she gives her a warm welcome and presents her with a live tree in a basket. Looking for a book on how to care for it, she asks the standoffish librarian, Forney, for information.
Not knowing where to go, she hides out in the Wal-Mart, using the stock as provisions and writing down what she's eaten for paying back. After a few days living like this, she begins going into labor right in the middle of the aisle. A mysterious person hears her screams, comes crashing into the store, and calls the ambulance.
After having a baby girl, Novalee unfortunately names the baby Americus, making you want to shake another warm-hearted eccentric who recommended something unconventional, and is taken in by Sister Husband and her older boyfriend.
She also meets Lexie (Ashley Judd,) a friendly nurse who calls her many children after snack foods (Prailine, Baby Ruth.) However it must have been decided that a sweet story of female bonding and self worth was not enough, so plot devices sends a series of disasters to befall our offbeat heroes.
Portman and other people's acting holds up this sappy, convoluted tale, which is too full of potentail to dismiss entirely. The character's are likable, if bit on the 'look! I'm too quirky!' side. After about a half- hour of 'working,' though, the sentimental drama becomes desperate to hold your interest, and ends up hurting itself (Rated PG-13.)
Recommendation- For a better chick flick adaptation full of female bonding and emotion (as well as lesbians and cannibalism,) watch Fried Green Tomatoes
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