Analysis of the Movie - Where the Heart Is

Vanessa Whitfield

SPE-116

December 13, 2011

The movie I chose was ‘Where the Heart is’ starring Natalie Portman as Novalee Nation, a pregnant seventeen year old from Tennessee . Novalee is on a headed to California with her less than friendly boyfriend Willie Jack when he abandons her at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah Oklahoma. Since Novalee has very little money on her and no place to go she decides to live in the Wal-Mart. She lived there for six weeks while meeting a few new friends, including Forney, the eccentric librarian, who 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. Later that night, after Novalee got back to Wal-Mart, she is woken up by going into labor and Forney is there to help her by jumping through a plate glass window to deliver her baby. She wakes up in the hospital to discover that she became an overnight celebrity for giving birth in Wal-Mart. Novalee’s mother, who has never been there for Novalee her entire life, comes to the hospital and claims to be there to help her out by providing a place to live. Novalee waited for three hours in the hospital waiting room for her mother who never showed up and had taken all of Novalee’s money. Once again she finds herself stranded with nowhere to go and no one to help her move there, now with a newborn baby. Along comes Thelma 'Sister' Husband, an eccentric but kindhearted recovering alcoholic who scoops Novalee and her baby up and takes her to her home. This would be the beginning of a whole new life for Novalee, one that would be enriched by the people whom she meets and the experiences, both good and bad, to which she is subjected. It becomes the story of her personal and emotional odyssey, as well as the story and growth of those with whom she most closely interacts. It is a story about life, relationships, responsibilities, love, and the ties that bind. Where the movie shines is in its gradual build-up between Novalee and Forney. He's an unusual guy but very sweet, completely trustworthy and... Well, perfect for her. Within this paper I will be analyzing how Forney and Novalee’s relationship goes from him stereotyping her and making her think less of her self worth, thin slicing, to him being there for Novalee and Americus, her baby, and the unrequited romantic interest Forney has for Novalee. I will also be analyzing their passion and friendship based intimacy, companionate love, and a few other things I have learned this semester about interpersonal communication.

The first concept I chose for this movie was stereotyping, which is to place a person or group of persons into an inflexible, all-encompassing category. This happens when Novalee and Forney first meet in his library where she is looking for a book for her Buckeye tree.