Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is

Year: 1990

Runtime: 107 mins

Language: English

Director: John Boorman

ComedyDrama

Stewart McBain is showing his kids a new side of life. The Outside. A wealthy businessman shows his young adult kids how tough life can be.

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Timeline & Setting – Where the Heart Is (1990)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Where the Heart Is (1990). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Dutch House, Stock Exchange, Cardboard Box Shanty Town, Homeless Shelter

The story centers on the Dutch House, a dilapidated estate that anchors the family’s fortunes and misfortunes in an urban landscape. The action moves between the city’s financial hub around the Stock Exchange and the stark realities of a cardboard box shanty town and a homeless shelter. These locations highlight the sharp contrast between wealth and ruination that drives the family’s arc.

🌆 Urban setting 🏚 Dilapidated Dutch House 🏦 Financial district 🗺 Shelter and street life

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:32

Main Characters – Where the Heart Is (1990)

Meet the key characters of Where the Heart Is (1990), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Stewart McBain (Dabney Coleman)

A successful demolitions magnate whose wealth and swagger mask a brittle ego. His TV humiliation exposes a flawed pride, prompting him to reassess what truly matters. Facing ruin, he must confront his values and reconnect with his family.

💼 Wealth 💪 Determination 🧭 Redemption

Daphne McBain (Uma Thurman)

The eldest daughter, stylish and self-assured, who channels energy into branding and public image. Her pragmatism helps the family survive, even as she learns that responsibility and care are as important as ambition.

💃 Fashion 🧭 Resourceful

Chloe McBain (Suzy Amis)

The younger daughter who uses creativity to cope—designing a calendar and ethereal murals. She is imaginative and impulsive, catalyzing opportunities that blend art with practicality for the family’s survival.

🎨 Creativity 🧭 Imaginative

Jimmy McBain (David Hewlett)

The middle son whose stock trades contribute to the crash. He grapples with guilt and responsibility as the consequences ripple through their lives, becoming a catalyst for the family’s upheaval and eventual growth.

💥 Risk ⚖️ Accountability

Jean McBain (Joanna Cassidy)

The mother who fights to keep the family together, attempting to intervene during the Dutch House’s collapse. She embodies endurance and maternal concern, anchoring the emotional core of the upheaval.

🧭 Care 💔 Resilience

Lionel (Crispin Glover)

A fashion designer who drags the family into avant-garde projects, staging shows and pushing creative boundaries. His ambition tests the family’s stability, blending allure with risk.

🎨 Fashion 🧷 Eccentric

Shitty (Christopher Plummer)

A homeless magician whose roguish charm offers humor and humanity. He demonstrates that wisdom and wonder can emerge in unexpected places, challenging judgments about value and worth.

🎩 Magic 🧭 Mentor

Sheryl (Sheila Kelley)

An amateur occultist who injects countercultural insight into the household. Her practical optimism helps the family adapt to loss and find unconventional solutions.

🔮 Mystery 🧭 Supportive

Tom (Dylan Walsh)

A young stockbroker whose reckless actions contribute to the crash. He becomes a focal point for examining consequences, accountability, and the possibility of growth within a competitive world.

💼 Ambition 💥 Consequences

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:32

Major Themes – Where the Heart Is (1990)

Explore the central themes of Where the Heart Is (1990), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

👪 Family Ties

Family relationships are stretched and redefined as wealth and pride collide with care and responsibility. The father’s success and the children's entitlement create tension that leads to estrangement and harsh lessons. The film tracks how love, forgiveness, and shared history gradually pull them back toward one another.

💹 Economic Collapse

A sudden stock market crash cripples McBain’s fortune and jeopardizes his business, setting off a domino effect that echoes through the Dutch House. The ensuing eviction forces the family into hardship and tests their resilience. The story uses economic collapse to expose character flaws and catalyze personal growth.

🎨 Art & Identity

Chloe’s calendar project and Lionel’s fashion show turn private space into public art, allowing the characters to explore identity beyond wealth. The mural walls and wearable designs become expressions of longing, creativity, and self-definition. Through art, the family negotiates fame, status, and belonging.

🌧️ Redemption

After losing their fortress of comfort, the family learns humility and how to live more simply. The father discovers new insight through hardship, while the children recognize the value of family over stuff. The conclusion sees the family recover wealth while gaining a deeper, more compassionate bond.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 12:32

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Quirky Resilience Stories Like Where the Heart Is

Hopeful journeys where eccentric characters rebuild their lives with creativity and heart.Explore movies like Where the Heart Is, featuring stories of personal adversity met with hopeful resilience. If you enjoyed the blend of serious themes with whimsical, character-driven solutions, you'll find similar comedies and dramas about rebuilding lives through unconventional means and found family.

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Narrative Summary

Narratives in this thread typically begin with a significant fall from grace for the main characters, often involving loss of status or home. The core of the story is their unconventional journey of rebuilding, which is less about regaining what was lost and more about discovering new values, often through a cast of eccentric supporting characters who become a new, found family.

Why These Movies?

Movies are grouped here for their unique blend of a potentially bleak premise with a consistently hopeful and often quirky execution. They share a medium emotional weight, balancing serious topics with lighthearted moments, and focus on the triumph of human spirit and creativity over despair.

Wealth to Wisdom Movies Similar to Where the Heart Is

Stories of wealthy characters who lose everything but find true meaning and connection.Discover films with character arcs like those in Where the Heart Is, where a fall from financial grace leads to a rise in personal fulfillment. These similar drama and comedy stories explore the theme of losing material wealth to gain deeper, more meaningful connections and a stronger sense of self.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern follows a clear arc: a life of comfort and privilege is shattered by a sudden crisis, forcing the characters into an unfamiliar, often difficult world. The central conflict is internal, as they grapple with their identity stripped of wealth. The resolution comes not from regaining their fortune, but from learning to value relationships, simplicity, and inner strength.

Why These Movies?

These films are connected by their central theme of transformative loss. They share a steady pacing that allows for deep character development, a medium intensity that explores hardship without overwhelming despair, and an ending that is happily focused on emotional riches rather than material recovery.

Unlock the Full Story of Where the Heart Is

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Where the Heart Is Summary

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Where the Heart Is Summary

Where the Heart Is Timeline

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Where the Heart Is Timeline

Where the Heart Is Spoiler-Free Summary

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Where the Heart Is Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Where the Heart Is

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