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Movies / On DVD / Where the Heart Is
Where the Heart Is

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Where the Heart Is (2000)

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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 [More]

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

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 26, 2000

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Where the Heart Is

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 >> >|
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Love, loss, and family -- bring tissues.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Report Card | comment Comment
09/16/01
Ross Anthony
Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

Love, loss, and family. Bring tissues.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Report Card | comment Comment
09/16/01
Ross Anthony
Ross Anthony
Hollywood Report Card

Still, it's hard to resist.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
01/01/00
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A swamp of clichés, contrivances, and cheap ham-and-cheese hero sentimentality.

Full Review Source: Mr. Showbiz | comment Comment
01/01/00
Michael Atkinson
Michael Atkinson
Mr. Showbiz
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Perfunctory and strangely soulless.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Liz Beardsworth
Liz Beardsworth
Empire Magazine

The filmmakers have crafted a motion picture that should appeal to members of both sexes.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
01/01/00
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This low-impact unwed motherhood epic never gets any deeper than a pebble skipping across a pond.

Full Review Source: SPLICEDWire | comment Comment
01/01/00
Rob Blackwelder
Rob Blackwelder
SPLICEDWire

Watching Where the Heart Is, in fact, is a little like listening to the town gossip run her mouth about everyone she knows.

Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jay Boyar
Jay Boyar
Orlando Sentinel

Reveals what complex blunderers we all are. Luckily, we are often blessed with friends who help us pick up the pieces.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
03/13/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

A preachy, episodic, arid movie that strains to be a culturally friendly/anonymous confection.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
01/01/00
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

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.

Full Review Source: Norman Transcript | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jim Chastain
Jim Chastain
Norman Transcript

In the hands of TV director Matt Williams ... it's a choppy mess that belongs on the street corner Monday morning.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Erik Childress
Erik Childress
eFilmCritic.com

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.

Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Michael Dequina
Michael Dequina
TheMovieReport.com

Unfortunately, the spirited performances (notably Stockard Channing as the benevolent Sister Husband) buckle under the weight of the implausibly overloaded script.

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
12/02/02
Kay Dickinson
Kay Dickinson
Sight and Sound

Where the Heart Is has a screenplay like that, zigging and zagging and wildly careening from one melodramatic development to the next.

Full Review Source: At the Movies | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
At the Movies
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The script, based on a novel by Billie Lett, is sprinkled with phrases meant to be poignant and funny, but sound like repackaged cliches.

Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) | comment Comment
07/02/04
Judith Egerton
Judith Egerton
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

The story is sweet.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Annlee Ellingson
Annlee Ellingson
Boxoffice Magazine

So sugary sweet and packed with magic-realistic miracles it plays like an Oprah Winfrey-produced miniseries on crack.

Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | comment Comment
01/01/00
Gemma Files
Gemma Files
eye WEEKLY

Where the Heart Is is everything that cynical moviegoers despise.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Phoebe Flowers
Phoebe Flowers
Miami Herald

A generic, below-par chick flick.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jonathan Foreman
Jonathan Foreman
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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