With Novalee Nation..that is where my heart is!!

I cannot believe that it has taken me an entire week to write an epinion on this movie. It was one of the best movies I have seen in quite awhile!
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THE NEED TO KNOWS

This PG-13 rated movie contains some foul language, some violence(domestic abuse) and talks about sexual abuse. I would recommend that you really stick to the rating on this one, it is not suited for young children.

This 2000 released drama has a 2 hour running time.

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The Cast

The Actors The Characters

Natalie Portman.............................................Novalee Nation
Ashley Judd.....................................................Lexie Coup
James Frain....................................................Forney Hall
Stockard Channing...........................................Sister Husband
Dylan Bruno...............................................Willie J Pickens
Joan Cusack.....................................................Ruth Myers
Sally Field...............................................Novalee's mother

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The story and my take on it

The movie begins as Novalee Nation is explaining her fear of "fives" to her Tennessee trailer park friends before taking off to California with her jerk of a boyfriend who has pipe dreams of becoming a country music singer. Novalee is seven months pregnant, and cannot be a day older than eighteen if that. While they are driving in Willie J Pickens (Novalee's boyfriend and father of her child) poor excuse of a car, Novalee takes a nap and loses her shoes through the floorboard which has no floor! So, they stop at Wal Mart to get her a pair of shoes while they are in Oklahoma. Willie gives her $10 and sends her on her way while he waits for her to return. After buying a pair of flip flops, she returns with the change, and finds that he has left her with only the change from the $10 and the clothes she has on.

Distraught, Novalee has no idea what to do, so she decides to LIVE IN WAL-MART. Now, if I were homeless, I think I would do the same thing! This girl may seem a little uneducated and your basic run of the mill white trash, but you learn more. Her first good choice was to live in Wal Mart! But she makes many more as the movie unfolds.

While Novalee lives there, she begins to add up the things she owes Wal Mart, "showers" in the sink of Wal Mart, and gets clothes and food from Wal Mart. While she is outside sitting near the greenhouse, Sister Husband a local finds her and mistakes her for a girl that she knew. She gives her a "care package" and a tree.

Novalee does not know how to care for the tree, so she goes to the local library where she meets Forney Hall, the librarian who seems quite rude to her and is extremely odd. She thanks him for the books, and goes back to Wal Mart.

About a month later, Novalee goes into labor....yes, in the WAL MART!!! It is raining like crazy outside and the only person who has somewhat figured out that she lives there is Forney. He is walking by and hears her screams and bursts through the glass window and delivers her baby right there in Wal Mart!

Novalee fainted before she went into labor, and when she awoke to Lexie checking her stats, she could not understand where all the flowers came from in her hospital room. Lexie then explains that she is all over the news. She had the Wal Mart baby! (Now, that is a way to make your stocks go up!)

Donations from all over are pouring in and even Wal Mart gives Novalee $500 and a job offer at any Wal Mart in the world, instead of making her pay her tab! Novalee names her baby Americus (Americus Nation...LOL) and is trying to figure out where to stay when her mother comes to the hospital to visit. Novalee has not seen her selfish mother since she was 5 years old, and the woman is pure trailer park trash. She suggests that she move there from New Orleans and take care of Novalee and Americus until they get on their feet. Novalee gives her the $500 from Wal Mart to use to put down on a house for them, and is happy that her mother will pick her and Americus up from the hospital.

When her mother is hours late, she is upset, wondering where to live (Perhaps she should move on to the K-Mart this time!)
Then, Sister Husband pulls up and offers Novalee a place to stay, and she accepts.

Novalee and Americus move in with Sister Husband, and Novalee starts working at Wal Mart. She and Forney become good friends, as well as her and Lexie. Lexie has more children than any woman should ever have!
Novalee and Americus continue to live with Sister husband and her boyfriend, while you see Willie J Pickens living in California and making it (briefly) in the country music business.

Throughout the movie, you see Novalee blossom from a scared, young, naive teenager to a sophisticated (in some odd way) young photographer with a lot of breaks! Even if Novalee had to take a lot of hard falls to get to a good place, she gets there!

There is a horrible tornado, and in it Sister Husband is killed, and leaves EVERYTHING she has to Novalee, which is enough for her to rebuild where the house they lived in stood. She builds a nice home, and is blossoming into a great woman.

Meanwhile, Lexie and her children are exposed to a horrible man "that drives a big nice Buick" and he beats Lexie so badly that she has to be hospitalized and has no more sick leave at the hospital, which leaves her unable to pay her rent, so her and her FIVE children move in with Novalee and Americus.

Throughout the time that she has lived in Oklahoma, Forney has fallen in love with Novalee, and she fails to see this until Lexie points it out to her. After this, she starts thinking about it and realizes that she too is in love with the man who takes care of his dying librarian sister.

Then, Forney's sister dies, and around this same time, Novalee is taking a picture of an over aged, overweight baseball team. While she is there shooting the picture, she overhears them talking about Forney and how he went to college but dropped out to care for his sister, and how his great great grandfather was even a governor!

After Novalee hears this, she is afraid to tell Forney of her feelings because she thinks that he can do much better in life and is afraid that he will stay in Small Town, Oklahoma to be with her instead of finishing college, like she wants him to. So, she lies to him and tells him that she does not love him, so he will go to school. And he does go to school.

I cried and cried when Forney left, because he loves Novalee and Americus, and Novalee loves him just as much. But, she did what she felt she needed to do, so he went to college. After writing letters though, Novalee decides that she had to go and tell him how she felt and she does. She arrives at his school and tells him the entire story and all is well.

Lexie marries the Bug man who is the nerdiest guy around, but he really is a great guy. He has two children, and guess what...Lexie is pregnant again! Seven is a lot, but EIGHT IS ENOUGH PEOPLE! STOP HAVING KIDS ALREADY!

The movie was an all around great movie. It is one of the few movies that I have seen recently that really "grabbed me" and made me feel like I knew the characters myself. I never thought that I would say that a teenage mother from a trailer park in Tennessee could be my hero, but if Novalee Nation were a real person, I would have to make her my hero, and try to make her my best friend! She has morals, she has values, and she makes the best out of all that life throws her.

The actors all did an excellent job, there was NO bad acting in this movie, they all did a fine job.

This movie was more of a chick flick, but my fiancee watched it with me and he also enjoyed it. So maybe the guys will like it to, you can't help but like this movie!

RUN, RUN, RUN to the video store and let this movie capture your heart!

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoy the movie as much as I did!~Kristy