Where the Heart Is is a 2000 American romantic drama film directed by Matt Williams. It stars Natalie Portman, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and Joan Cusack, with James Frain, Dylan Bruno, Keith David, and Sally Field appearing in supporting roles. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, is based on the best-selling 1995 novel of the same name by Billie Letts. The film follows five years in the life of Novalee Nation, a pregnant 17-year-old who is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in a small Oklahoma town.