‘Heartland’ Review: Can a Country Legend Outrun the Town That Broke Her?

Netflix drops ‘Heartland’ today, and the pitch is easy to like. Writer and director Shana Feste, who made ‘Country Strong’ back in 2010, returns to Nashville with a darker story and an Oscar winner at the center of it. Jessica Chastain plays Misty Jones, a country music legend who left town twenty years ago and took a failed marriage, a stalled career and a pile of bad press with her.

Misty has no plans to come back until her niece, a rising young singer, goes missing. That sends her out of retirement and into the very industry that chewed her up. She becomes an amateur detective in a town that clearly would rather she stay gone.

The first thing to know is that this is Chastain’s show, and she knows exactly what to do with it. Misty is abrasive, beer soaked and impossible to push around, and Chastain plays her with a swagger that keeps the film moving even when the plot sputters. She also does her own singing, and it lands with real confidence rather than feeling like a gimmick.

The mystery itself is the weaker half of the package. The central investigation is thin, and the villains announce themselves so early that very little is left to uncover. I kept waiting for a genuine surprise, and what I got instead were a couple of twists that felt more convenient than clever.

What kept me watching was the story buried underneath the whodunit. Misty carries old wounds, and the film is at its best when she reopens them. A scene with John Hawkes as her ex, Clark, is brief but quietly devastating, and it shows what the whole movie could have been if it trusted its characters more than its plot.

Feste also deserves credit for painting Nashville as something far uglier than a postcard. The music business and the local police feel cozy with each other in ways that curdle quickly, and the film has real anger about how a woman who speaks up gets treated. Garrett Hedlund, Jennifer Nettles and Ross Lynch fill out a strong ensemble, and Nettles gets a duet with Chastain that stands out as a highlight of the musical moments.

Where the film stumbles is in tone. It swings between gritty noir and full throated melodrama, and the climax leans so hard into the latter that it nearly tips over. The moody, muted visuals promise something restrained, so the louder final stretch feels like a different movie arriving late to the party.

Still, I never felt bored, and that counts for plenty on a streaming Friday. This is a film that works best at home, on a couch, with the volume up and your expectations set to enjoyable rather than essential. It is not going to rewrite the Nashville thriller, but it respects its lead and gives her room to work.

I came out of ‘Heartland’ admiring Chastain far more than the machinery around her. The mystery is predictable and the ending pushes too hard, yet the performance, the music and the bruised heart of Misty’s story carry it a long way. I give it 7 out of 10.

Did Misty’s return to Nashville win you over like it did me, or do you think ‘Heartland’ deserves a higher or lower score, so tell us in the comments?