Title: Lost Heart (2020; PG)
Director: Jesse Low
Major Themes: Anger, Forgiveness, Mysteries
Synopsis: Hannah, a burned-out mega-music star, returns home to face the ghosts from her past and find peace.
Several years ago, I happened to listen to an interview on the Eric Metaxas Show featuring Victoria Jackson. I was intrigued by her story and the movie she had recently been an actress in, so I jotted the name, Lost Heart, in boldface in my catch-all notebook with a note attached: Christian film filmed in Hart, Michigan July 2019. One of the reasons why I was intrigued by the film was that it was filmed in my home state, in my home area. Up until I was 11 years old and we moved to New Zealand, Hart, Michigan was my hometown. Now, it turns out this film was actually filmed just south of Hart—in Whitehall—but still…I’m calling it home territory. Location excitement aside, I was intrigued to get to see this new Christian film, and when I found it available on-demand recently, I took the time to watch it.
Hannah Howard is finally returning home after a prolonged career as a mega-music star. She left her small, quiet Northern Michigan hometown as an angry teenager, and frankly, she’s not sure she really wants to be back now. But with her father’s death and the rest of her life crumbling around her, it’s time to return to her roots and try to find what healing she can (if she can) back at home. Homecoming is just as difficult as she thought it would be, though, and when memories assault her at every turn, is there any way she can find balance, peace, and healing after all these years?
Lost Heart wasn’t a wow! story for me. It was interesting, but not the greatest film I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen some critics criticize the casting, and I would agree with them to some extent—it could have been better. The plot was okay, but not anything to write home about—there were several elements in here that made me stop and ask, “Why was that there?” Some parts—like Chip, the man with down syndrome, and his quest for Bigfoot—were fun, but didn’t really seem to add much to the plot.
Overall, I’m not sad I watched the movie, but it also wasn’t a huge favorite of mine. We’ll probably watch it as a family at some stage, simply because of the intrigue around where it was filmed, but I doubt it would become a family favorite.
WARNING: A character uses God’s name in vain in the first couple of minutes. At 4:30, a man has a heart attack. A drunk woman talks about how her father was an abusive drunk at 6:30, gets upset, and ends up yelling at people until 9:40. A woman gets a flashback from 12:10 – 12:50 of a drunk man abusing his wife, and then he gets punched. “Damn” is used. There is some smoking throughout the movie, including at least one use of marijuana. From 34:09 – 34:35, a woman has a flashback of fighting and things being broken. At 44:58, a man tells of someone who killed his uncle (with an ax, I think) and almost killed his son. From 1:09:31 – 1:10:10, a man is yelling at his daughter and she is yelling back. “Crap” and “scared the heck” are used. Several times, there are a few New Age ideas pushed around by a UFO-seeker who is searching for the truth. One theme that comes up several times is that two characters believed they “sold their souls to the Devil” to achieve their ends—at the end of the movie, they are encouraged to repent from that and look to Jesus, who is greater than the Devil.
Appropriate ages:
Ages 15 and Above, Adults
Links to buy this movie:
Amazon: Prime Video | DVD
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