Based on a true story, Little Pink House is a compelling drama complete with terrific acting performances that tells the fascinating story of Susette Kelo and her legal fight over eminent domain in the early 2000s. Played by Oscar nominee Catherine Keener, Kelo is a working-class paramedic and later nurse who moves to her dream home along the river in a low-income area of New London, Connecticut. However, her home along with her neighbors’ are threatened after it is determined that the area will be redeveloped and be the location for a new factory for the large pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The neighborhood is suspicious of the New London Development Corporation headed by the ruthless fictional character Charlotte Wells, played by Emmy-nominated actress Jeanne Tripplehorn, who claims that it is in the best interest of the town to buy out all of their houses in order for the redevelopment to bring back jobs. We witness the other side through a series of meetings with Charlotte Wells and the governor of Connecticut who are maliciously working together in order to give the besieged governor a political victory. Alongside her longtime boyfriend, Kelo reluctantly becomes the face of the neighborhood fighting against the city who eventually claim they have the right to take their properties away as a result of eminent domain, which allows the government to take people’s property away as long as it is for public use. Over time, the movie becomes more of a legal drama in which Kelo representing the neighborhood goes through many court cases and eventually the Supreme Court who makes the ultimate decision in 2005. Overall, I found it to be a truly fascinating true story account of the implications of an often overlooked legal maneuver like eminent domain, and the only complaint with the film is that it can be sometimes a little too slow.
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