Where The Heart Is (2000 Film) - Plot

Plot

Seventeen-year-old, seven-months-pregnant Novalee Nation (Natalie Portman) sets off on a road trip from Tennessee to California with her ignorant ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens (Dylan Bruno). In Sequoyah, Oklahoma, Novalee asks her boyfriend to stop at Wal-Mart so that she can go to the bathroom and replace her shoes, which had fallen out a hole in the floor of their beat-up car. When Novalee reaches out for her change at the register, the amount of $5.55 sends her into a panic and she runs outside to find that her boyfriend has left (Novalee believes that the number 5 is a sign of trouble or a negative event of significance is to come because when she was 5, her mother left her for a baseball umpire and when she was a waitress at a restaurant, a regular customer went crazy and cut her on her arm from wrist to elbow and it took 55 stitches to close the wound).

For the rest of the afternoon, Novalee browses Wal-Mart. She meets Sister Husband (Stockard Channing), a woman who runs the Welcome Wagon in town, and mistakenly believes Novalee to be her long-lost relative Ruth Ann. She gives her a buckeye tree and a welcome basket. Novalee also meets a photographer named Moses Whitecotton (Keith David) who becomes her mentor in later years. Later 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. She soon figures out how to live undetected in the Wal-Mart.

Novalee visits the library and meets Forney Hull (James Frain), who works at the library while caring for his sister (the librarian), whose health has been ruined by alcoholism. Novalee learns from Sister Husband and her boyfriend that Forney dropped out of Bowdoin College in Maine and wanted to be a history teacher before he had to leave school. 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.

That night in the Wal-Mart, Novalee wakes up during a thunderstorm when she starts feeling pain in her stomach. Her water breaks and while attempting to clean it up, she goes into labor. When she falls because of the pain she notices that she was on the row 5 of the store so she makes a big effort to move to the next row, just in this moment, Forney (who watched her go into the store at closing time) jumps through a plate-glass window and helps deliver her baby.

The next morning, Novalee wakes up in the hospital and became an instant celebrity after giving birth in a Wal-Mart. All day she is stalked by several newscasters. After being asked by her nurse Lexie Coop (Ashley Judd) what she will name her baby girl, Novalee decides to name her baby Americus (because Moses suggested Novalee to give her baby a strong name). Novalee gets to know Lexie, who reveals that she has had four children by three different men (and that Lexie named her children after snack names; Brownie, Praline, Cherry, and Baby Ruth). While in the hospital, Novalee gets a visit from her mother (Sally Field), whom she has not seen since she was a child. Her mother asks if she has a place to live. Novalee says no, and her mother says that the two women can get an apartment together. Novalee shows her the $500 that she was given by the President of the Wal-Mart chain to her mother. Novalee's mother takes the $500, saying that she would use it to get an apartment for them and Americus. Novalee agrees that her mother can come pick her and Americus up at 9:00 a.m. the next day. The next day, it is 12:15 in the lobby, but her mother never shows up, and Novalee realizes that her mother only wanted the money. Shortly after, Sister Husband comes to pick up Novalee and offers to let Novalee and the baby live at her house (as well as because Sister Husband does not know how to take care of the buckeye tree Novalee planted).

Novalee's ex-boyfriend Willy Jack Pickens is shown trying to make it as a country singer, and after being arrested for dating a young teenager (who robbed a 7-11), and is hired by agent Ruth Meyers (Joan Cusack).

Later, Novalee is shown to have a good time at Sister Husband's house. An extremely religious couple from Midnight, Mississippi come to show the "Wal-Mart Baby" the word of god, but Sister Husband slams the door on them. Later, Novalee and Forney are getting Christmas trees, when Forney remembers Americus is 5 months old. This shocks Novalee about her unlucky number and races home to find out that Americus was kidnapped. Sister Husband talks to a police officer about the church folks that came to her house, and that they were from Midnight, Mississippi. Novalee remembers that, in the hospital, she was reading cards that people sent to her and that one card post marked and sent from Midnight Mississippi said her baby was an abomination under God. Novalee asks Forney why bad things happened to her. Then, they follow the police cars to the outside of a church, where they find Americus, in Baby Jesus's manger.

Five years pass, and Novalee begins a career as a photographer with the help of Moses Whitecotton (whom she befriended in the Wal-mart). One day, when a tornado blows through the town, Novalee and Americus hide in an underground shelter, but Sister is out running an errand and does not make it back in time. Sister Husband is killed and their home is destroyed. After the funeral, one of Sister Husband's friends from AA informs Novalee that she is the beneficiary of Sister's estate, worth around $41,000. Novalee proceeds to build a new home for herself and Americus on Sister's land.

One day, Novalee receives a call from Brownie, Lexie's oldest child. Novalee cannot hear what he is saying, and eventually perceives that something bad has happened so she drives to Lexie's house. She finds Lexie in the bedroom with Brownie and Praline, covered in blood and bruised. Novalee permits Lexie and her now five children to live with her and Americus in their new house. Lexie tells Novalee that her new boyfriend had gone to her house and tried to molest her two oldest children, Brownie and Praline, before Praline had thrown up on him and Lexie returned home from work early and caught him before he got to Brownie. She attacked him, hitting him twice before he knocked her out. Lexie is at first devastated, but as time passes she and her children begin to heal, and she eventually marries the ordinary but reliable "Ernie the Exterminator" and has another child.

When Forney’s sister passes away due to alcoholism and he does not appear to be at the funeral, Novalee finds him in a hotel and comforts him. Novalee and Forney end up sleeping together, after which he tells her that he loves her and she doesn't reply. Forney returns to Maine to bury his sister, and the town's people make comments about how he can finally leave town and have a real life. When Forney comes back, he talks about visiting Bowdoin and Novalee realizes that he could now finish his education. Forney says he loves her and wants to get a factory job and stay with her, but Novalee lies, saying she does not love him, and he leaves.

On Americus's 5th birthday, Novalee is paranoid about her party because of the unlucky 5 (when Americus was 5 days old, she had jaundice; at 5 weeks old, she had an ear infection; at 5 months old, she was kidnapped). Later, Novalee picks up a newspaper and reads a story about a double amputee being robbed of his wheelchair. The man proves to be Willy Jack, her ex-boyfriend and father of her daughter. Willy lost his legs when he was drunk because he was sued of copyright infrigment for his hit song. While he was drunk, he kept hearing Novalee's voice talking about Americus, then he tripped on train tracks and an oncoming train ran over his legs. During his singing career, he failed to see Novalee because he entered an elevator with his agent (prior to their break-up) just moments after Novalee left the other elevator, in order to receive an award for a prized photograph.

She visits Willy in the hospital and tells him about what happened to her. He admits that he lied to her when he told her that he didn't feel the baby's heart beat the day he left her behind. Willy says he wishes he could go back and undo the lie, because of how one lie can change your whole life. Willy explains people lie because they're "scared, crazy, or just mean". Novalee realizes that she made a similar mistake lying to Forney. She drives Willy Jack home to Tennessee and then continues to Maine to find Forney at college. Novalee admits to him that she lied and that she really loves him and they return to Oklahoma to get married in a Wal-Mart.