Love, loss, and family -- bring tissues.
Where the Heart Is (2000)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:94
Fresh:33
Rotten:61
Average Rating:4.7/10
Consensus: Poor script and messy plot undermines the decent cast.
Runtime: 2 hrs 10 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis:
A bathroom stop en route, at an Oklahoma Wal-Mart, changes Novalee's life forever. For when she leaves the store, she discovers that Willy Jack and the Plymouth are gone. Only her Polaroid camera...
A bathroom stop en route, at an Oklahoma Wal-Mart, changes Novalee's life forever. For when she leaves the store, she discovers that Willy Jack and the Plymouth are gone. Only her Polaroid camera remains in the parking space.
Alone and broke, Novalee surreptitiously moves into the vast store, borrowing food and supplies from its shelves. When she gives birth on the floor - and her hideaway is revealed - Novalee and her "Wal-Mart Baby" become instant celebrities. More importantly, over the next few years, Novalee finally becomes part of an unconventional, makeshift family comprised of her wonderfully eccentric new friends.
Now, with the family she always wanted, Novalee is transformed from a homeless teen to a successful and strong woman. She has finally found a home in this small town where fate has dropped her. -- © 20th Century Fox
Starring: Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, Joan Cusack
Starring: Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, Joan Cusack, Sally Field, James Frain, Dylan Bruno, Keith David, Mackenzie Fitzgerald
Director: Matt Williams
Director: Matt Williams
Screenwriter: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
Producer: Patricia Whitcher, Matt Williams, Susan Cartsonis, David McFadzean
Composer: Mason Daring
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Reviews for Where the Heart Is
A swamp of clichés, contrivances, and cheap ham-and-cheese hero sentimentality.
The filmmakers have crafted a motion picture that should appeal to members of both sexes.
This low-impact unwed motherhood epic never gets any deeper than a pebble skipping across a pond.
Watching Where the Heart Is, in fact, is a little like listening to the town gossip run her mouth about everyone she knows.
Reveals what complex blunderers we all are. Luckily, we are often blessed with friends who help us pick up the pieces.
A preachy, episodic, arid movie that strains to be a culturally friendly/anonymous confection.
The film worked for me. I think this is primarily because of the interesting characters and how they are brought to life by strong acting performances.
In the hands of TV director Matt Williams ... it's a choppy mess that belongs on the street corner Monday morning.
The rubric for the genre that I've come to call the 'Oprah movie': slick, well-meaning, female-empowering, and just about as exciting and suspenseful as the middle label implies.
Unfortunately, the spirited performances (notably Stockard Channing as the benevolent Sister Husband) buckle under the weight of the implausibly overloaded script.
Where the Heart Is has a screenplay like that, zigging and zagging and wildly careening from one melodramatic development to the next.
The script, based on a novel by Billie Lett, is sprinkled with phrases meant to be poignant and funny, but sound like repackaged cliches.
So sugary sweet and packed with magic-realistic miracles it plays like an Oprah Winfrey-produced miniseries on crack.
Latest News for Where the Heart Is
March 31, 2005:
Jason Patric Proves Himself a "Walker"
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| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
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| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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| 90% 90% | District 9 |
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| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
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