Heart of the Country is one of these faith based films which tries to keep its Christian message subtle but it is there to see; an America that exists only in a film producer's, preacher or a Republican politician's mind.Faith (Jana Kramer) left her family in a small town in North Carolina for New York and ended up marrying to a wealthy socialite who worked in Wall Street. She has lived the high life but her husband has been busted for fraud and Faith returns home.It becomes clear that Faith has been distant with her dad (Gerald McRaney) and her sister but the film does not spell it out. I was not even sure if they have ever met Faith's husband.When Faith's dad gets cancer, she tries to get her husband to arrange a top New York doctor to see him. Faith's father meanwhile wants her to fight to save his marriage and goes to see his son in law to find out whether he still wants to be with Faith.The film has positive messages about marriage, forgiveness and redemption. It is just too sanitized and happy clappy for my liking. We are not made clear what Faith's issues were with her family but they would had good reason to be upset by the way they were treated by Faith who seems to have forgotten all about them until trouble came knocking on the door.

I really enjoyed this movie. The acting was great. This movie was about unconditional love, forgiveness, commitment and family. It took me a little while to warm up to the husband and also his competition. The father was such a strong and caring man. I loved the closeness he had with his daughters, and then the typical relationship between sisters. This movie touched my heart in so many personal ways. There is one word that sums this movie up and that is beautiful.....the songs, scenery and Jana. I highly recommend this movie.

Heart of the Country was filmed in Wilmington, NC the exact same place as the filming of One Tree Hill. So Jana Kramer, who was a star attraction on One Tree Hill, should have felt right at home. First of all I'm quite a bit older than Jana but I fell in love with her from the moment I saw her as Alex on One Tree Hill. Actually I liked the part she played on One Tree Hill better than in this movie. However, she does a very credible job here. She has an incredible amount of sex appeal, which was very evident in One Tree Hill and which was still evident in Heart of the Country. Her sex appeal is that she is very sweet and probably makes every guy wish they knew her up front and personal. Heart of the Country was a typical but nice story of small town girl who goes to NYC to further her singing career, meets a very wealthy guy, falls in love, gets married, and then he runs into high finance trouble and ends up in jail. Assets are frozen and so Faith goes home to NC to regroup and to be with her dad and sister. Near the end she reconciles with her husband, who is really a decent guy. Her Doctor friend in NC, who has feelings for her, loses out. In that regard the movie may become disappointing to some. But, in real life it usually ends up the way that it finally did. Most married couples do reconcile after they separate for awhile. After all, they were in love when they married. All in all a nice movie that did not make me want to jump off a cliff when it was over like so much of the trash out of Hollywood these days.

Just got my copy of Heart of the Country and it has a few things going for it that caught my attention. First and foremost, it was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, very close to the town I visited with my family that was beautiful. North Carolina, is a very popular place with filmmakers; it's hard to resist the beauty of the state, whether you're on the coast or in the mountains.I also love that Heart of the Country is based on a novel (as are the other movies mentioned below) and stars ACM's New Female Vocalist of the Year for 2013, Jana Kramer. With good scenery and good music, you can't go wrong.