The only notable thing in this purely average, run-of-the-mill movie is also the most depressing. Natalie Portman, a young actress of considerable talent once again wastes herself on blatantly lazy, hackneyed material. While the attraction to TPM (The Phantom Menace) or as I like to call it POS (Piece of Shit) may be perfectly understandable, her choice of follow-up work is somewhat questionable. Both Anywhere but Here and Where the Heart is are very much female-oriented movies, featuring strong female characters, qualities that Ms Portman was understandably attracted to. If only she could have paused and actually took a long, hard look at either movie.
Novalee Nation’s boyfriend has just dumped her in a most unceremonious fashion, outside Wal Mart with nothing more than $10 and a rather heavy pregnancy to her name. Initially distraught, she passes some time in the huge shopping store, staying beyond closing time, making it her new home. During the day, she ventures into town, where she meets librarian Forney Hull, who becomes her saviour when she gives birth one night inside the store. The following morning, Novalee wakens to a strange celebrity status, her child known as “the Wal-Mart baby” and goes out into the world, experiencing love, loss and various forms of adversity.
Where the Heart Is starts off promisingly enough, with its quirky little premise but when character interaction is called for, things go downhill rapidly. After Novalee has her baby, she encounters a whole cast of eccentric individuals, who come across as nothing more than laboured attempts at Southern oddity. The movie from here on in grows increasingly tiresome as it rolls itself into a maelstrom of endless melodrama, ranging from seemingly obligatory child abuse to kidnap. People die but you don’t feel anything for them, lost as they were in feebly written caricatures. A tornado whips up to add some possible excitement, and rather surprisingly is fairly well realised, but everything quickly calms down, the script losing itself in unfailingly tedious fashion. It all ends predictably enough and by then, not even the most ardent soap opera loving housewife should be remotely interested.
What makes Where the Heart Is a step above the likes of Coyote Ugly and Loser are the central performances. Both Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd bring the screen constantly to life despite the obvious burden of the surrounding drama. The former has of course the biggest arc and she travels it convincingly, essaying the transformation Novalee goes through from a naïve, somewhat nervy girl to the confident yet still slightly confused young woman with ease. Surrounding these fine actresses is a supporting cast of “chick flick” veterans including Sally Field (who pops up for one scene and flees the film with the grace and ease unfortunately not available to the leads) and Stockard Channing. Joan Cusack also appears, truly lost in typecasting hell, playing yet another wacky, fast-talking gal.
At the end of the day, as the end credits rolled, I left Where the Heart Is with great relief. It is, in spite of the watchable cast, lamely written melodrama, the type of which would be perfectly at home in a Danielle Steel three-hour mini-series. I personally despise such things and am at a loss to understand why otherwise perfectly intelligent women watch them with abandon, but not before lapping up the books of course. |
