Review of Where the Heart Is (2000) by Rebecca H — 02 Jul 2011
Where The Heart Is is firmly set in emotional drama. Obviously a novel adaptation, it spans more than five years, unnecessarily cutting between two stories, that of pregnant teenager Novalee Nation trying to survive after her pig of a boyfriend abandons her, and that following said pig.
It doesn't need to be this big a story, suffering from huge jumps in plot, character development and time. However, it does utterly convince that the number 5 spells doom (which has to be a difficult task, surely), and is skilled at evoking emotions. Novalee is an extremely sweet heroine, and the film nicely balances the theme of the kindness of strangers with utterly horrific events.
But the lasting impression is that someone squished up a soap opera into a film. There's cheesy music, time for multiple births, deaths and marriages, and kidnappers, paedophiles, tornadoes and crippling train accidents hiding behind every number 5.
So it's a melodrama. It's still affecting and very watchable.
This review of Where the Heart Is (2000) was written by Rebecca H on 02 Jul 2011.
Where the Heart Is has generally received positive reviews.
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