Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is is a likeable drama about an indomitable young woman, Novalee Nation. Heavily pregnant and without a penny to her name, she is abandoned by her boyfriend Willy Jack at a Wal-Mart supermarket in a completely unfamiliar town the couple were passing through. Novalee has nowhere to go, so she makes the supermarket her lodging for the night. This goes on until the night she goes into labour. Not entirely by chance, the town's young intellectual librarian Forney is on the spot, and thanks to him Novalee gets to hospital, where she gives birth to a little girl.

Novalee and her child become local celebrities, and Novalee is offered a job at Wal-Mart, but that still does not solve her housing problem. There are, however, many warm-hearted people in the little town. One of them is Sister Husband, who offers to let Novalee move in. Another is the helpful Forney, who falls in love with Novalee, but she does not notice at all.

In a superfluous subplot we follow Novalee's scoundrel of an ex-boyfriend and his attempts at a music career. Willy Jack is a stereotype and unsympathetic into the bargain, so one has no real interest in seeing more of him. Those scenes simply seem like needless interruptions.

There is material for melodrama in the film's story, but the filmmakers keep their feet on the ground, which is both good and bad. The tone is surprisingly sober, but at the same time it lacks high points and dramatic momentum.