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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:25

Fresh:5

Rotten:20

Average Rating:4.1/10

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 date)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
07/21/05
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Not possessing much in the way of a character arc, saints are boring to watch and impossible to act.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/25/03
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The scenes feel forced, producing episodic plotting and calling attention to the characters' superficiality.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
11/06/02
Jeff Strickler
Jeff Strickler
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ebert & Roeper
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
01/01/00
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Crappy writing and overall shoddy construction.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Portman ... is remarkably persuasive as the unschooled Novalee.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Bob Thomas
Bob Thomas
Associated Press
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A veritable ventricular chamber orchestra of emotional manipulations and easy virtues.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Bruce Newman
Bruce Newman
San Jose Mercury News
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Astonishingly shameless melodrama.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

Funny, fresh and reassuring.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jane Sumner
Jane Sumner
Dallas Morning News
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Grand Guignol-on- trailer-wheels horror show.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jessica Winter
Jessica Winter
Village Voice
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

It's too bad [Portman and Frain's] contributions, and those of many others, drown in a big glop of treacle.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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

Heart definitely lacks much of the earthy lyricism it's obviously striving for.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Michael Wilmington
Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The moronic script by Lowell Ganz and 'Babaloo' Mandel has all the subtlety of a Hee Haw reunion and more schmaltz than a Catskills retirement home.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
01/01/00
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie isn't all that much -- it's too cloyingly ramshackle -- but Portman isn't playing down to her character this time around.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
New York Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Where the Heart Is fails to build much emotional momentum.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Peter Stack
Peter Stack
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Serves up the usual homilies, but it lacks the quirky density and cinematic snap of, for instance, Jonathan Demme in his Melvin and Howard period.

comment Comment
01/01/00
Robert Horton
Robert Horton
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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