Where the Heart Is

A pregnant 17-year-old rebuilds her life after being abandoned by her boyfriend at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma.

• Director:Matt Williams
• Genre:Comedy / Drama / Romance
• Runtime:115 minutes

Cast

Natalie Portman : Novalee Nation
Ashley Judd : Lexie Coop
Stockard Channing: Sister Husband
Joan Cusack : Ruth Meyers
James Frain : Forney Hull

Seventeen and pregnant, Novalee Nation (Natalie Portman) sets off on a road trip from Tennessee to California with her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens (Dylan Bruno). In Oklahoma Novalee asked her boyfriend to stop at Wal-Mart so that she could go to the bathroom and get shoes. When Novalee comes back out of the Wal-Mart, she finds that her boyfriend has left.

For the rest of the afternoon, Novalee browses Wal-Mart and she meets Sister Husband (Stockard Channing), who mistakenly believes Novalee to be a long lost relative. Later on that evening, Novalee feels sick and runs into the bathroom to vomit, and when she comes out again she discovers that the store is closed, locked and dark and She soon figures out how to live undetected in the Wal-Mart.

Novalee visits the library and there, she met Forney Hull (James Frain) who works at the library while caring for his sister (the librarian), whose health has been ruined by alcoholism. Over time, Forney reveals that he dropped out of Bowdoin College in Maine and tells Novalee that he had wanted to be a history teacher before he had to leave school. Also, Novalee goes to Sister Husband’s house and explains that she is not Ruth Ann. However, Sister Husband invites her in to stay for some cornbread and buttermilk, and Novalee plants the buckeye tree in Sister’s yard. Read more

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