Little Pink House

The movie deals with a significant social issue, the growing trend of municipalities abusing "eminent domain" to evict lower middle class people from the homes they own to hand the land over to big corporations, in the name of urban renewal. The movie suffers a bit from "TV movie of the week" syndrome, but it is well done and the issue is timely.

The fact-based movie is grounded in one woman's story to save her home and her community. Toward the end, the movie goes a little too far afield in following irrelevant parts of her story rather than the main story line, but that's a small quibble.

This is somewhat of a depressing film to watch, as we all know the ending, and it's not a happy one. The highest court in the land basically said it was fine for government to seize the private property of Party A and give it to Party B if the net result was more revenue for the government doing the seizing. Stalin, Mao, Mussollini and Hitler would have hailed the decision. The film itself is a bit understated and there are no top tier actors involved, but the story is told well and everyone acquits himself well here. It is worth noting that, in the final Supreme Court decision it was those nasty and mean-spirited right-wing conservatives - O'Connor, Rehnquist, Thomas and Scalia - who sided with Ms. Kelo, while all the liberal champions of the poor and downtrodden - Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer, Kennedy and Stevens - said it was fine for the government to seize working people's private property.

If you love your home and despise heavy-handed and corrupt government, this film is for you. The actors are very believable, the story is compelling, and the cinematography is great.

This film tells the story of a woman who fights hard against the city government taking her home for development by a private corporation.

This is a poignant story, and it drives me to tears. I admire the fighters' dedication to fight for their homes. It is engaging and captivating.

This film gets to you. As a retired constitutional lawyer, I'm usually hard on Hollywood's typical cutting-corners presentations of legal procedures and issues. And as a life-long performer of various kinds, I usually view acting with a critical eye. This film did a great job of both: the actors playing Susan Kelo and her boyfriend were so believable & created so much empathy for the characters, that it was actually a wrench to see photos of the story's real-life principals at the end, to be reminded by those that it *was* acting. The writer and director did an excellent job of making the substance of complex & very serious legal issues accessible, and the procedural steps clear and comprehensible. Even the scene of a Supreme Court argument, usually something very, very difficult to distill simply, was tight, succinct and clear. Throughout, the human elements of the story predominated: what eminent domain did to the people of one neighborhood -- and the human elements were very engrossing. The villains may seem to outside eyes just a slight touch caricatured, but I am sure that, through the eyes of Susan Kelo and her neighbors, the bureaucrats, politicians & functionaries who knowingly stole their homes, deserved every bit of those portrayals. An excellent job overall!