Una famiglia ritrovata

Heart of the Country is one of these faith based films which tries to keep its Christian message subtle but it is there to see; an America that exists only in a film producer's, preacher or a Republican politician's mind.

Faith (Jana Kramer) left her family in a small town in North Carolina for New York and ended up marrying to a wealthy socialite who worked in Wall Street. She has lived the high life but her husband has been busted for fraud and Faith returns home.

It becomes clear that Faith has been distant with her dad (Gerald McRaney) and her sister but the film does not spell it out. I was not even sure if they have ever met Faith's husband.

When Faith's dad gets cancer, she tries to get her husband to arrange a top New York doctor to see him. Faith's father meanwhile wants her to fight to save his marriage and goes to see his son in law to find out whether he still wants to be with Faith.

The film has positive messages about marriage, forgiveness and redemption. It is just too sanitized and happy clappy for my liking. We are not made clear what Faith's issues were with her family but they would had good reason to be upset by the way they were treated by Faith who seems to have forgotten all about them until trouble came knocking on the door.

I would call this Jana Kramer's 2nd best film since "Approaching Midnight". Jana in this one stars as Faith, in a story based on the prodigal son returning home (however this is the prodigal daughter). Approaching Midnight takes better advantage of her acting chops and it was theatrical while this picture was a direct to video piece. I heard that this was a vehicle to promote Jana's music but I was hoping for more of her tracks to be played throughout the movie in subtle ways. I would watch this movie again on DVD however because of Jerry McRaney a great actor with a solid part that was given to him. The locations are pretty solid for this movie too. I enjoyed seeing the south on camera. I think more films should be filming in the south and Heart of the Country takes advantage of some great locations.

Just got my copy of Heart of the Country and it has a few things going for it that caught my attention. First and foremost, it was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, very close to the town I visited with my family that was beautiful. North Carolina, is a very popular place with filmmakers; it's hard to resist the beauty of the state, whether you're on the coast or in the mountains.

I also love that Heart of the Country is based on a novel (as are the other movies mentioned below) and stars ACM's New Female Vocalist of the Year for 2013, Jana Kramer. With good scenery and good music, you can't go wrong.

I really enjoyed this movie. The acting was great. This movie was about unconditional love, forgiveness, commitment and family. It took me a little while to warm up to the husband and also his competition. The father was such a strong and caring man. I loved the closeness he had with his daughters, and then the typical relationship between sisters. This movie touched my heart in so many personal ways. There is one word that sums this movie up and that is beautiful.....the songs, scenery and Jana. I highly recommend this movie.

Lots of not so subtle Christian values, pleasant film. This is a independent film marketed to be a family film with it's message of Christian values hitting the watcher with a sledge hammer of Christian values. Some people of other religions or agnostics might find the movie hard to handle. Well produced, well acted but a little to sugary sweet in its story line. I wouldn't pay to watch it in a movie theatre but worth a watch if you have nothing better to do, only rates a TV movie of the week.Surprising prejudice against the North, the south lost the civil war; get over it, its called the USA. They should not be calling the car a Yankee car. This is a not so subtle slap against Americans from Michigan.