Where the Heart Is

Year: 2000

Actors: Natalie Portman, Keith David, Joan Cusack, Ashley Judd

Duration: 120 min

Novalee Nation (Natalie Portman), a pregnant teen, goes on the road with her dreamer boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens (Dylan Bruno), who abandons her in a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. Left alone with virtually no money, she hides out in the store for six weeks until her baby, Americus (Mackenzie Fitzgerald), is born. After the birth, she gets national recognition as giving birth to the "Walmart baby". She makes friends with two local women (the religious, but promiscious Sister Husband (Stockard Channing) and Lexi Coop (Ashley Judd), a woman with a pile of kids, who also seems to have considerable man problems until she marries the local exterminator). She also becomes friends with Walmart photographer Moses Whitecotten (Keith David), who leads her to a career, and with a young man, Forney Hull (James Frain), who runs the library and takes care of his alcoholic sister, who is the real librarian.—John Sacksteder

Genre: Action   Comedy   Drama   Romance