Country music star Misty Jones (Jessica Chastain) has been away from Nashville for a long time. “Twenty years,” she tells a television audience in the new trailer for Heartland, the new film from director Shana Feste.
“So why have you come back now?” the interviewer asks Misty.
“My niece, Charlie Heart, is missing,” she responds. “And I’ve come to find her.”
The so-called “queen of mean” of country is now a recluse, far from the spotlight of the Grand Ole Opry. “Misty could be incredibly tender, and then five minutes later, shoot someone's windows out,” Chastain says. “She's not interested in being liked. And I love women like that on screen because I don't think we get to see them that often. Underneath the noir and the mystery, Shana was making a film about women reclaiming authorship of their own lives.”
Like it or not, fate has a way of pulling people back into the heart of Nashville. Misty’s niece is a 22-year-old country music star, following in her aunt’s footsteps. So when Charlie disappears, a media circus is imminent. “I know when somebody goes missing, the clock starts to tick,” Misty says in the trailer above.
Charlie is played in the film by real-life rising country star Carter Faith, who recorded new music for the film’s original soundtrack. Heartland marks Feste’s return to Nashville after making 2010’s Country Strong, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow alongside country artist Tim McGraw.
With Heartland, Feste found herself drawn back into the world of country music — with a twist. “I wanted to create something truthful that's also incredibly fun to watch,” Feste says. “Something that has elements of suspense and country music and a really rootable character that doesn't feel familiar. I thought, ‘OK, what if I write this really complicated, messy, badass woman, Misty, and I set her in this world of country music? And instead of doing a drama like Country Strong, I lean into the film noir and create a mystery?’”
In Heartland, Misty works her way through a collection of suspects that includes Charlie’s boyfriend, Jace (Ross Lynch), and her manager, Roy Combs (Garrett Hedlund, who also starred in Country Strong). “This town’s changed since you left,” Combs tells her. No kidding: Misty was plenty tough as a country legend, but she rarely had to put up with car chases and fistfights.
In the trailer, you can catch a glimpse of Misty and fellow country singer Winnie Jo Lean (Jennifer Nettles) collaborating on a performance of the film’s title song, “Heartland,” or stream it here. The soundtrack features original performances by the cast, along with songs by Margo Price, Carly Pearce, Eddy Dunlap, Channing Wilson, and Dave “Fergie” Ferguson.
Chastain did her own singing for the role, just as she did for her Academy Award–winning turn as Tammy Faye Bakker in the film The Eyes of Tammy Faye and her Emmy-nominated performance as Tammy Wynette in the series George & Tammy.
“Country music is about telling a story,” Chastain says. “It's about someone leaving you, someone dying, they're drinking too much, wanting someone that you shouldn't want…. Apparently I just really like women with big hair and complicated lives.”
Heartland hits Netflix on Nov. 13.
