Where the Heart Is is a 2000 drama/romance film directed by Matt Williams and produced by Susan Cartsonis, David McFadzean, Patricia Whitcher and Matt Williams. The film stars Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz, is based on the best-selling novel by Billie Letts.

The film follows Novalee Nation, a pregnant seventeen-year old girl from Tennessee, who sets out for California with her boyfriend. When they stop in Oklahoma, her boyfriend abandons her. Since Novalee has only a few dollars, she secretly moves into a Wal-Mart store. She gives birth to her baby and attracts media attention and she sets up a new life with the help of new friends. The film was released by 20th Century Fox on April 28, 2000. It was filmed in Waco, TX

Where the Heart Is is a 1990 romantic comedy directed by John Boorman, starring Dabney Coleman and Uma Thurman.

Stewart McBain (Coleman) is a real-estate mogul who spends his living blowing up old buildings to make room to erect new buildings. All goes as planned for a new subdivision, until a group of protesters object to the destruction of one lonely, ugly building, called the Dutch House. Typically, the media is sent to the scene of the protest, and McBain appears on TV in a bad way. His children - Daphne (Thurman), Chloe (Amis), and Jimmy (Hewlett) - ridicule him for appearing on TV, and as a reward for their remarks, he drops them off at the Dutch House with $750 apiece, and tells them they're on their own. They must find jobs if they expect to make money to stay warm. McBain and his wife, Jean watch from afar as their children adapt to their new lifestyle, meeting new friends, and inviting others into their new home, including a decrepit bum. Written by Ari Herzog

Novalee Nation is a pregnant 17-year-old from Tennessee heading to California with her boyfriend Willie Jack, but is abandoned by him at a Wal-Mart store in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. Novalee has no job, no skills and only $5.55 in her pocket, so she secretly lives in the Wal-Mart until her daughter Americus is born six weeks later. Novalee decides to raise her daughter and rebuild her life in Sequoyah, with the help of eccentric but kind strangers. Based on the best-selling novel by Billie Letts. Written by Stephen Hughes

A pregnant teen (Natalie Portman) goes on the road with her dreamer boy friend (Dylan Bruno), who abandons her in a Wal-Mart store in Oklahoma. Left alone with virtually no money, she hides out in the store for 6 weeks until her baby is born. After the birth, she gets national recognition as giving birth to the "Wal-mart baby". She makes friends with two local women (Stockard Channing as a religious, but promiscious woman & Ashley Judd as a woman with a pile of kids, who also seems to have considerable man problems until she marries the local exterminator). She also becomes friends with the Wal-mart photographer (David Keith), who leads her to a career, and with a young man (James Frain) who runs the library and takes her of his alcoholic sister, who is the real librarian. Written by John Sacksteder

Novalee Nation, 17 and very pregnant, has never been part of a real home. The closest thing to family for the hard-luck teen is her selfish, would-be musician boyfriend, Willy Jack, with whom she's traveling from Tennessee to California in a rust bucket that used to be a Plymouth. A bathroom stop en route, at an Oklahoma Wal-Mart, changes Novalee's life forever. For when she leaves the store, she discovers that Willy Jack and the Plymouth are gone. Only her Polaroid camera remains in the parking space. Alone and broke, Novalee surreptitiously moves into the vast store, borrowing food and supplies from its shelves. When she gives birth on the floor - and her hideaway is revealed - Novalee and her "Wal-Mart Baby" become instant celebrities. More importantly, over the next few years, Novalee finally becomes part of an unconventional, makeshift family comprised of her wonderfully eccentric new friends. Now, with the family she always wanted, Novalee is transformed from a homeless teen to a successful and strong woman. She has finally found a home in this small town where fate has dropped her. Written by Hyacinth Tachi