Review of Where the Heart Is (2000) by Jamiee & — 19 Aug 2008

Where The Heart Is is one of those movies based on a novel, where you simply can't help noticing that fact. The action jumps ahead years at a time, characters phase in and out almost at random, and by the end we're left with the impression that it was all just a bunch of stuff happening. This is a novel all right, and probably a rambling one at that.

When pregnant Novalee (Natalie Portman) is dumped at a Wal-Mart by her scum boyfriend, she's almost ready to give birth. With nowhere else to go, she starts secretly living in the Wal-Mart, but then gives birth to much publicity and generosity. This starts off a pattern of horrifying bad luck off-set by the kindness of strangers. In a somewhat redundant subplot, her boyfriend Willie Jack (Dylan Bruno) also goes from one bit of bad luck to another, albeit without the kindness part, and with a nastier outcome. One imagines an embittered writer playing out wish fulfilment on the boyfriend that got away. This is all presumably meant to be some sort of comment on karma, but since they both get appallingly bad luck, it doesn't quite work.

The supporting cast come and go, particularly James Fraine as odd-looking love interest Forney and Ashley Judd as Novalee's frequently-pregnant friend Lexie. They add colour and everything, but in that Obviously Based On A Novel way, relationships between these characters are more inferred than shown on screen. Reams of stuff is obviously missing.

What's still there, of course, is a shopping list of horrific misfortune. And although it should probably be sobering - and it is, from time to time - ultimately the compounded horrors of Novalee's life take on an almost surreal quality. (Particularly since they all seem to be the work of the number 5, of which Novalee is desperately and understandably afraid.) There'd be more resonance if Novalee cracked under pressure more often, but by the time this chain of events starts off she's already build up an immunity to this sort of thing since her mother left her. The main character doesn't need to constantly break down in stories like this, but taking it all in her stride renders things a bit bland. (Although admittedly she does get a bit shell-shocked when Willie Jack leaves her at the start.).

Natalie Portman is a strong lead, neatly tiptoeing the line between dimwitted and strong. Ashley Judd is pure likeability as her best friend - although she's not quite as "main" as the front cover seems to think, where she's first-billed as well as getting a bigger picture - and although they don't get much to do, Joan Cusack and Sally Field make real impressions in their short scenes. Dylan Bruno endures a lot as Novalee's Hellworthy ex, but I'm still not sure what I was meant to get out of his scenes. Anyway, the film is very often amusing, sometimes horrifying, and occasionally satisfying.

But it's still the sort of mess that you'd expect to claim "based on a true story", and since it doesn't, it's hard to care when the author has clearly plucked one randomly horrific event after another to throw at their heroine. It's not a bad film, despite the horribly inoffensive title, but it's much too jumbled to take seriously.