Netflix’s Heartland Gives Jessica Chastain a Role Worth Watching

A small detail sticks too. Her fridge is nearly empty except for a forgotten Grammy she keeps there for safe-keeping.

The missing niece

The niece is the daughter of Misty's estranged brother, an up-and-coming country artist named Charlie Heart, played by Carter Faith. When she vanishes, Misty returns to the Nashville music scene. She deals with ineffectual cops and seedy industry figures while retracing Charlie's steps.

Garrett Hedlund plays a charismatic producer, Roy Combs. John Hawkes plays Clark, Misty's ex-husband and former musical partner. He appears in hints and flashbacks, but arrives late in the film and has little impact.

Where it stumbles

The review's main complaint is pacing and structure. Each major reveal zips past alongside yet another country music cue, as though the film had already reached its final act. Misty moves from place to place, but rarely puts two and two together; the plot turns tend to fall into her lap.

The result, the review says, is a passive lead character who technically drives the story. It calls the film languid yet breathless, with plenty of plot and little emotional development.

Chastain gets credit. The review calls her remarkably locked in as an aging star who does not want to be seen but is forced back into the spotlight. It adds that the performance matters less when the script hands her every answer.

The craft is competent. Nighttime spaces lit by halogen signs look appropriately noxious, and Feste captures Chastain's close-ups with clarity. The country music interludes, however, play like wheel-spinning interruptions, and the film feels episodic and disconnected.

The review also credits the story with coming from a place of love, for both country music and Nashville. It concludes that the film is too mechanical to reach the seedy underbelly it hints at.