Though the story may be obvious, there is some life in the way that it's told. The characters are much better written than the plotting would suggest, and when a scene allows them to exist outside the confines of this mystery, the actors are given good material to work with. Thankfully for Heartland, Jessica Chastain is the one doing that work. As she's done many times before in her career, she turns her protagonist into a commanding and wholly compelling presence. It's hard to take your eyes off this performance, and save for one moment with an especially worthy scene partner, you won't really want to.
I've argued before that some great star turns shine bright enough to blind us to the faults around them, or at least make them harder to notice if you're not really looking. In a movie like, say, Joker, which asks to be taken seriously, that's something I'll be quick to criticize it for. But in the new Netflix thriller looking to provide some at-home entertainment? I was grateful for it. Heartland won't be living rent-free in your mind anytime soon, but while it's on, it is most certainly watchable.
Heartland Is A Compelling Drama Smothered By A By-The-Numbers Thriller
When we meet her, Misty Jones (Jessica Chastain) is living a lonely, empty life. She has her own property, and as her scummy neighbor learns the hard way, she cares very much for her dogs, but it's clear that some self-destructive path has left her in this holding pattern – which she's forced to break when her brother (Paul Sparks) calls. Charlie Heart (Carter Faith), Misty's country star niece, has been missing for a few days. Yes, she's done this before, and yes, everyone from her manager to the police are proceeding as if nothing's wrong. But he swears this time is different, and he wants Misty to look into it.
That would require her returning to Nashville for the first time in two decades. We know right away that Misty was once a big deal – a Grammy was just about the only thing in her fridge – but what went down all those years ago is something we learn slowly, in pieces. Whatever it was coincided with the (violent) end of her marriage to Clark (John Hawkes), a gifted songwriter, and left her with few friends in the industry. She never intended to go back. But, when she does, it soon becomes clear to her that there's something fishy about Charlie's disappearance.
The way Chastain plays her, she is someone you desperately want to understand, and the old wounds she reopens are far more captivating than the new ones.
As a thriller, Heartland is disappointingly thin. Once the nature of the case becomes clear, there are really only a couple ways things could go, and the movie isn't as clever as you'd hope about hiding which one it is. I hesitate to even introduce the relevant players, lest I give the game away myself by accident. But Chastain's Misty is a disruptor of more than just the country ecosystem. She is brash, aggressive, and relatively fearless, willing to do far more than anyone expects to track down Charlie. Her behavior blows up the expected rhythm of a story like this in ways I genuinely appreciated.
Also, as Misty knocks down doors and vandalizes cars on her way to the truth, we learn more about her and her past. The way Chastain plays her, she is someone you desperately want to understand, and the old wounds she reopens are far more captivating than the new ones. As fun as it is to see this maverick woman wield a gun as often as she does, Heartland would've been better off as a character-driven drama than a propulsive crime story. The film is at its best when it's able to slow down long enough for two characters to really talk, and for Misty's long-buried feelings to come bursting out of her, but the story demands a certain momentum that just doesn't serve those strengths well.
The movie sells its action decently well, there are some set pieces that generate good tension, and the performance scenes are, wisely, only half about the music. But the best scene in Heartland is a long-awaited confrontation between Misty and Clark, in which John Hawkes brings a lot of complexity to a character we've heard about, but barely know. Chastain and Hawkes bounce off each other like they're constantly feeling out the shape of their relationship; two people who know everything they meant to each other and have to discover what of that, if any, is left.
There's a version of this story that's all scenes like that. Given what we learn about Misty's history, there's enough meat on that bone to have made a compelling feature. But, the version we get is one that spends a lot of time distracted by an investigation the viewer will have wrapped up in their mind long before the film does. Thankfully, Jessica Chastain ensures there's always something interesting on-screen as it all unfolds.
Heartland is available to stream on Netflix from Friday, November 13.
Release Date
November 13, 2026
Director
Shana Feste
Writers
Shana Feste
Producers
Jenno Topping, Peter Chernin, Jason Owen, Mark Anthony Little, Randall Poster
English (US) ·