Film
Where the Heart Is
A wealthy businessman strips his adult children of their trust funds and forces them to fend for themselves in New York City. It's an awkward comedy-drama about privilege colliding with reality, driven by a sharp ensemble cast and the particular late-80s energy of watching rich people suffer small indignities. For anyone who finds schadenfreude appealing or enjoys character-driven ensemble pieces with an edge.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy broad, sharp-edged satire of a rich family's comfortable cruelty, and a tone that swings between caustic laughs and uneasy sympathy.
Skip it if you want comedy that stays light, since this one gets its laughs from discomfort and can feel mean when its privileged characters are the only punchline.
What it asks of you: It asks for patience with a story that lets its characters' bitterness linger, and a willingness to stay with discomfort across a fairly brisk 107 minutes.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Trading Places1983
A similar premise executed with more bite: two wealthy men bet on whether they can ruin a poor man while elevating a beggar. Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd create genuine chemistry, and the film has real satirical teeth about class and money.
But The satire can feel dated in places, and the pacing occasionally drags in the middle act. It's very much a product of its time.
The Breakfast Club1985
An ensemble of teenagers from different social strata forced into proximity, learning to see past their stereotypes. Like *Where the Heart Is*, it's fundamentally about privileged people being knocked off balance and discovering something real.
But The tone shifts between comedy and melodrama in ways that don't always land smoothly. Some dialogue hasn't aged gracefully.
Working Girl1988
Melanie Griffith plays a secretary using smarts and ambition to infiltrate the world of Manhattan privilege. It shares that late-80s New York energy and the pleasure of watching someone navigate a world that wasn't built for them.
But The romance subplot feels obligatory, and some of the film's attitudes toward class have softened into nostalgia rather than critique.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Where the Heart Is
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Heathers1989
Both are ensemble pieces about privileged young adults learning that the world has rules, but *Heathers* asks what happens when someone decides to enforce those rules through violence.
A pitch-black satire about privilege, entitlement, and youth culture among the wealthy. Like *Where the Heart Is*, it features a young ensemble of rich kids facing consequences, but *Heathers* has genuine menace underneath the comedy—it's what happens when you remove the safety net.
But The tone is acidic and cruel in ways that will feel wrong if you're expecting warmth. Multiple characters die, and the film treats it as comedy rather than tragedy.
More like this (8)
Parenthood1989
An ensemble family comedy-drama with similar emotional range: messy, funny, touching, driven by strong performances from Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, and a deep bench of character actors. Warm without being soft.
But At two-plus hours, it can feel baggy. The film tries to be too many things at once, and not all of it lands equally.
It Could Happen to You1994
Nicolas Cage and Rosie Perez in a surprisingly charming film about money and what happens when someone without it suddenly has it. More gentle than *Where the Heart Is*, but with similar themes about wealth and character.
But It's aggressively sentimental and never questions its own fairy-tale logic about money and happiness. The tone is saccharine for some tastes.
Coming to America1988
An African prince pretends to be poor in Queens, forcing him to understand how ordinary people live. It's another riff on privilege meeting reality, anchored by Eddie Murphy's charm and genuine curiosity about the setup.
But The fish-out-of-water premise wears thin after the first act, and the film leans heavily on broad comedy that hasn't aged uniformly well.
Overboard1987
Goldie Hawn plays a wealthy, spoiled woman who suffers amnesia and is taken in by a working-class carpenter. It's a similar engine—privilege and entitlement meeting necessity—with real chemistry between the leads.
But The premise relies on some uncomfortable implications that modern audiences will bristle at. It's unambiguously a product of the 1980s.
The Witches of Eastwick1987
Three distinct women of means discover power and agency. It's less directly about money, but it shares the ensemble character work and the late-80s tone of seeing people navigate desires and consequences in an urban setting.
But It's uneven in places, and the misogyny baked into its premise will frustrate some viewers. The ending feels like a compromise between several different films.
Local Hero1983
A corporate executive sent to a Scottish village to secure land deals discovers that money can't buy everything. It's gentler than *Where the Heart Is*, but shares the core idea of privilege meeting resistance and learning something real.
But The pacing is deliberately slow and contemplative. If you want snappy comedy, this film's meditative approach will test your patience.
Pleasure2021
Both use a protagonist stripped of safety to explore what happens next, but where *Where the Heart Is* finds comedy and character growth, *Pleasure* finds systemic exploitation and moral compromise.
An unflinching, sexually frank film about a young woman navigating exploitation and agency in Stockholm. Like *Where the Heart Is*, it's about someone discovering what the real world demands, but it commits fully to discomfort rather than comedy, and it's far more serious about the costs.
But It's extremely graphic and contains depictions of sexual coercion and abuse. The tone is bleak rather than redemptive, and it offers no comfort.
Synecdoche, New York2008
Both explore identity and self-deception through ensemble casts, but *Synecdoche* deconstructs the very idea of coherence and character, whereas *Where the Heart Is* affirms it.
Charlie Kaufman's dizzyingly complex film about a theater director staging a reality that consumes his actual life. Like *Where the Heart Is*, it's an ensemble piece about people navigating delusion and the gap between who they think they are and who they actually are—but it operates on a completely different scale of ambition and abstraction.
But It's narratively labyrinthine and deliberately confusing. If you need clarity and forward momentum, this film will frustrate you intensely.
People
Cast
Dabney ColemanStewart McBain
Uma ThurmanDaphne McBain
Joanna CassidyJean
Crispin GloverLionel
Suzy AmisChloe McBain
Christopher PlummerShitty
David HewlettJimmy
Maury ChaykinHarry
Dylan WalshTom
Sheila KelleySheryl
Ken PogueHamilton
Michael KirbyLionel's Father
Directing
- John BoormanDirector
- Tony LucibelloFirst Assistant Director
- Susan HallerScript Supervisor
- Walter GasparovicSecond Assistant Director
Writing
- John BoormanWriter
- Telsche BoormanWriter
Production
- Sean RyersonAssociate Producer
- Bonnie FinneganCasting
- Edgar F. GrossExecutive Producer
- Gordon YangLocation Manager
- John BoormanProducer
- Sean RyersonProduction Manager