Where the Heart Is (1990 film)

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

Where the Heart Is

Directed by	John Boorman
Produced by	John Boorman Edgar F. Gross
Written by	John Boorman Telsche Boorman
Starring	Dabney Coleman, Suzy Amis, Uma Thurman, Crispin Glover, Joanna Cassidy, Christopher Plummer, David Hewlett
Music by	Peter Martin
Distributed by	Touchstone Pictures Silver Screen Partners IV
Release date(s)	February 23, 1990
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
Budget	n/a
IMDb profile

[edit] Plot summary

Stewart McBain (Dabney Coleman) is a successful self-made demolitions expert who blows up buildings for a living. In the midst of one such project, a group of protesters stops the last building on a lot from being demolished, the Dutch House. When McBain appears on TV to dismiss the protests, he is made to look foolish. Returning home, his three college-aged children - Daphne (Uma Thurman), Chloe (Suzy Amis), and Jimmy (David Hewlett) - ridicule him for even thinking to appear on camera.

Partly due to the chiding, and partly feeling that they are spoiled and soft, he kicks them out of the house. Giving them each $750 he drops them off at the Dutch House to make their own lives. The house is dilapidated and on the verge of collapse. In order to finance their new lives, the three McBain children take on housemates. These include a fashion designer (Crispin Glover) named Lionel; a homeless magician, Shitty (Christopher Plummer); a stockbroker, Tom (Dylan Walsh); and Sheryl, an amateur occultist (Sheila Kelley). Chloe is commissioned to finish a calendar for an insurance company. Lionel has to complete his designs for a fashion show. Chloe uses her roommates in the calendar and Lionel ends up using some of them to model for his show.

The story is told against the backdrop of a stockmarket crash which brings McBain to ruin. He desperately attempts to stave off a hostile takeover of his demolition company and fails. He loses his home and becomes destitute. Ultimately, his children take him in and he starts to see the world in an entirely different light.

Toward the end, the McBain children, their parents, and friends are all evicted from the house. They hit on the idea of blowing up the building in order to stave off the takeover and return everyone to their previous standard of living. Throughout the film there are numerous romantic miscommunications that are tied together at the end.