Movie of the Month: Heart of the Country

Hey! I know I'm five days late, but I kind of ran out of time. The thing is I saw and decided on a movie, but didn't have the time to write about it. I got caught up in studying and today is the first day since the last post (Quotes of the Week don't count, I only need about five minutes to snap a photo and write three sentences next to it.) I was able to find the time for writing this. The point I'm trying to make is, better late, than never right?

So at the end of January I watched this wonderful movie and I decided I just have to write about it. It's called Heart of the Country and iMDb categorized it as drama/romance. The story has some really heart wrenching moments, and I cried at the end, so it definitely is a drama. But I also cried while I watched Iron Man 3, and there's nothing sad about that story (except the end. I have some issues with endings where happens three thounsand stuff in 30 second frame, but before we ha to watch a minute frame of Tony Stark driving a car. Sometimes I just can't understand Hollywood), so me crying probably isn't a legit way to categorize movies.

STORY

The story centres on Faith (played by Jana Kramer) a woman whose husband is accused of fraud in a Wall Street Ponzi scheme. When he's arrested, he tells Faith to leave New York and luxurious lifestyle she can no longer afford (FBI froze their accounts), and go back home to rural North Carolina, to her father and sister. Because of the movie's  portrait of the love between father and daughter, the plot of the story is also said to parallel the famous parable "Prodigal Son". I don't want to write any spoilers, so this is all about the story I will write, but I think it's a nice tale, telling love can concurs all (I'm not talking just about the romantic love, but also fatherly love, which is a nice diversion from all the romance movies I saw in the past years).

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE ACTORS

Jana Kramer, who portrayed the main female role, Faith, is known for her role of Alex Dupre, a character from a TV series One Tree Hill. She's also a country music singer with an album titled Jana Kramer. Her singing received many positive reviews from the critics and praises for her vocal performances. Her songs are also part of the movie.

Gerald McRaney who plays Calvin, Faith's father, is known for his work as Rick Simon from series Simon&Simon and Maj. John D. "Mac" McGillis from TV series Major Dad (I have to admit, I'm too young to watch these series, the only thing I know about them is what I read about them from the description box in iMDb). In the past few years he mostly played guest roles in different shows, like House of Cards, Fairly Legal, Mike and Molly...
Randy Wayne, who plays Faith's husband Luke, is known for his role as Brandon in Honey 2 (he played next to Kat Graham) and also for playing Justin Miller in now cancelled series The Lying Game (that role is the reason I felt like I know him from somewhere the whole movie. I was a big Lying Game fan). Currently he's working on four movies (don't know if he has big roles in them, that are just the information I found on the internet) and has a movie that came to theatres in America yesterday: Android Cop. 

THE VERDICT

The movie is sweet and I liked it, but the ending is kind of sad (as I said before I cried) and not at the same time. It was the type of ending for which the phrase "sweet and sour" was invented. Anyhow, the thing I like the most about the movie was the music, especially this one song called Weeds and Wild Flowers, performed by Jane Kramer. I've been looking all over for it (my latest info tells me it'll probably be on Jane Kramer next CD which will be released this year) and I can't find a decent recording of it. So instead I'm keep replaying the end of the movie. My final decision is, this is a movie worth your 89 minutes and 13 seconds.

xxx

Lucy Jane