Where the Heart Is *** (2000, Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, Joan Cusack, James Frain, Dylan Bruno) – Classic Movie Review 9272

Director Matt Williams’s tastily offbeat 2000 comedy Where the Heart Is stars Natalie Portman as Novalee Nation, a pregnant teenager, quarrelling with her mom (Sally Field) and then abandoned by her boyfriend (Dylan Bruno) in a Wal-Mart supermarket in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, where she secretly lives and makes a new home for herself until her daughter is born six weeks later. She then decides to raise her daughter in Sequoyah, relying on the kindness of quirky strangers.

Portman is appealing in this neatly played, feel-good romantic comedy drama, written by the experience expert team of Babaloo Mandell and Lowell Ganz, based on the bestselling novel by Billie Letts, with a fine cast and a superior production to make it work.

Also in the cast are Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, Joan Cusack, James Frain, Sally Field, Dylan Bruno, Keith David, Mary Ashleigh Green, Laura House, Karey Green, Kinna McInroe, Karen Moore, Richard Jones, Ray Prewitt, Mackenzie Fitzgerald, Alicia Godwin, Sue McCormick and Laura Auldridge.

Where the Heart Is is directed Matt Williams runs 120 minutes, is made by Twentieth Century Fox and Wind Dancer Productions, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Babaloo Mandell and Lowell Ganz, based on the novel by Billie Letts, is shot by Richard Greatrex, is produced by Susan Cartsonis, David McFadzean, Patricia Whitcher and Matt Williams, is scored by Mason Daring and is designed by Paul Peters.

It is rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, language and sexual content.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9272

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