Oscar-winning star Jessica Chastain returns with her latest film, Heartland, after appearing in notable films such as The Martian & Interstellar. While her latest film doesn’t reach the aforementioned heights of the previous 2, this film will have you on the edge of your seat as it thrusts the audience straight into a Nashville detective mystery with more heart and emotional weight than I was expecting, as Chastain plays Former country star Misty Jones as she leaves seclusion to search for her missing niece.

Starting strong, we get a great sense of who Misty Jones is as a character & what she’s been through. As the film starts, we understand that something had happened to the former country star that made her leave Nashville for over 20 years, & it isn’t until we start learning more about her niece’s disappearance and peeling back the curtain that we learn more about what occurred all those years ago & it’s one of the film’s biggest strengths, paired with Chastain’s acting, which made me feel emotional at certain points.

The story in this film isn’t anything new, yet it’s what they do with the initial premise that kept me engaged, incorporating Jone’s country background & with the setting of Nashville as a backdrop, it leans heavily into that, with Chastain breaking out into song on a couple occasions. The mystery element of this story and Chastain’s character, Misty becoming a vigilante-style detective, was fun to watch as she pieced the story together all the while trying to keep herself together mentally; at points, it was tough to watch, and they couldn’t have cast better than Chastain, as she truly leads this film from the get-go and had me entertained throughout.

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The film has some great side characters with Garret Hedlund most known for Tron Legacy alongside Ross Lynch known for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina  & My Friend Dahmer each side character in this film pushed the narrative forward in some way & despite feeling like some were criminally underused each one served a purpose in letting the story come full circle in solving the mystery of Charlie Heart, played by Carter Faith who made her acting debut in this film, which is something I hadn’t realised going into it & after seeing her in this film, I hope she is booked and busy as she put on a performance that matched brilliantly alongside Chastain.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Heartland; it’s not particularly unique for Netflix in regards to its premise, but the acting, story & character work on display gave me such a thrill to watch this mystery unfold with some beautiful shots of Nashville alongside it.

★★★

Streaming on Netflix now / Jessica Chastain, Garret Hedlund, John Hawkes, Ross Lynch, David Rysdahl, Wynn Everett / Dir: Shana Feste / Netflix / 15

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Bailey McKenzie

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