In a small town in Tennessee, sisters Ada (Kaitlyn Bausch) and Piper Spencer (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) spend every spare moment writing songs and singing. It's in their blood, since their daddy had a great voice as well, or at least that's what they were told. Their mom, Elizabeth (Amanda Ditmer) doesn't talk about him much and they chalk it up to it being too painful for her to discuss, since he died in Afghanistan some ten years earlier. Then a fortuitous water pipe break leads to a bunch of old stuff being removed from the shed and the girls start to discover things about their mysterious dad.
For starters, he was a hero, giving his life to save his fellow serviceman when a grenade endangered the group. Ada finds not only the details of his bravery, and the subsequent Silver Star he was awarded posthumously, but the name of a man who served with their dad who works at a Veteran's home only a short distance away. Before you know it, a plot is hatched to go see this Henry Monroe (Lawrence Turner) and Ada, Piper, and Ada's best friend Justine (Dara Sisterhen), a budding photographer, head out in Justine's pickup truck, using Piper riding Justine's horse as an excuse to their mom and Meemaw (Myra Turley). To sweeten up Mr. Monroe, the girls bring along one of Meemaw's famous pecan pies.
Things don't go as smoothly as the girls had hoped, but they meet a lovely Veteran named C.J. Simms (Ronny Cox, Robocop, Total Recall) who is himself a musician. He promises to work on Monroe, if the girls will return later with another pie. As promised, Simms gets them some valuable intel on their dad, including leads in Nashville. When the girls follow the leads, they meet a cute guy named Declan (Matthew Barnes) at a club and there are immediate sparks between him and Ada, but more importantly, they discover that their dad was friends with and played with famous country star Marq Dunn (Laura Bell Bundy). One thing leads to another, and soon the girls find themselves talking with Marq and learning all sorts of things about their dad. The trouble is, they are doing all of this without telling their mom and that will come back to bite them.
When their mom discovers what they've been up to, the entire family has to come to terms once more with the loss of this man that had such an impact on all of them. With a song in their hearts and on their lips, they come together as a family to pay tribute to him in a way they never could have imagined. Hint: It has to do with Willie Nelson!
Special features include a music video for "We Don't Run" which is mostly composed of clips from the film, a featurette on the making of the film, and a video recipe for Meemaw's Famous Pecan Pie, which made me want to make one right then.
Pure Country: Pure Heart is a sweet family movie that anyone who enjoys country music will enjoy. Even if you don't (I am not a big fan, personally, but I liked the movie and the music was quite good), the tender story of family love, determination, patriotism, and respect for Veterans is one the whole family can enjoy. It would be especially inspiring for any young girls who have the dream of being a singer/songwriter. It's a sweet story and I guess ole Willie Nelson got jealous of Dolly Parton and her precious family films, so he wanted in on it. Either way, Pure Country: Pure Heart is a pretty good movie, although definitely geared more towards girls, despite the fact that WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels plays a member of Marq Dunn's entourage.
Warner Brothers provided me with a copy of this Blu-ray for review. The opinions I share are my own.
