This is a brief review of the 2014 movie Where Hope Grows. My boyfriend and I watched it on PureFlix, so there may have been scenes edited out that weren’t in the original film.

The Movie’s General Plot

Where Hope Grows is a movie about a single father named Calvin who got kicked out of the Detroit Tigers (Major League Baseball) and returned home, where we find him a drunk who spends little time with his daughter, who clearly wants to be loved by him. Calvin meets a young man named “Produce” (no other name is mentioned, and he is called this the whole time) in the produce department of the grocery store. They connect and develop a friendship, spending time together playing baseball. Not everyone approves of the friendship on Calvin’s side of things.

My Thoughts

I don’t like to do detailed reviews; I feel like there are plenty out there. And I’ll add links below for sites that talk about triggers. I’m just going to talk about a few things that stood out and if I would recommend the movie.

Neutral: “Produce” is portrayed as happy and optimistic. You might be tired of the stereotype of happy people with Down Syndrome. I don’t believe that’s what is happening here. He is also not portrayed as just mindlessly being happy all the time. There are people with Down Syndrome who are happy and optimistic all the time, and there are some who are down and pessimistic. There are people who don’t have Down Syndrome that can be upbeat and optimistic and vice versa. I don’t have an issue with how “Produce” was portrayed.

Negative: There is a scene where the main character exploits the supporting character’s disability to get out of a speeding ticket. Unfortunately, that’s never addressed later.

Neutral: We watched it on PureFlix, so there were a lot of bleeped parts. Perhaps there was some cussing in the original film, but I’m thinking that there were a lot of offensive slurs about the supporting character’s disability. These slurs are NOT portrayed in a way that makes them seem okay. They are shown as either a comment of ignorance or a hurtful thing said when a character is being outright nasty. Calvin makes a “Rainman” comment near the beginning.

A few trigger warnings: As mentioned, Calvin is an alcoholic. This is a theme throughout the movie. There is also a surgery scene near the end of the movie. While you don’t see anything “graphic”, there is a lot of blood. The camera moves very quickly, so you don’t get a long look at anything, but it is quite intense. Though, again, this is the PureFlix edit, so I can’t vouch for the original movie. [Spoiler warning] There is a death at the end of the movie.

Overall Thoughts

If you can believe it, this movie was a first of its kind 11 years ago (as of Jan 2025). Not many American movies showed main characters with disabilities who were played by actors with real disabilities (if you consider Down Syndrome a disability). And “Produce” is not considered “inspirational” based on his Down Syndrome, nor does he magically change the lives of everyone he meets. Yes, he changes the life of Calvin (wouldn’t be much of a movie if he didn’t), but the friendship feels more mutual, excluding the scene I mentioned where Calvin gets out of a ticket. For the most part, Calvin just seems drawn to “Produce” as a friend, and “Produce” seems to feel the same. While “Produce’s” Down Syndrome is brought up a lot by other characters, Calvin doesn’t seem to think much about it; he spends the first half of the movie very distracted by his personal issues.

Would I recommend this movie? Well, first, to reiterate once more, I watched the PureFlix version, so I can’t 100% recommend the original film, as I don’t know what may be missing. As far as the PureFlix edit goes, it’s not a bad movie. How you view the film may depend on how you view treatment of disabilities. “Produce” does not seem to have a profound intellectual disability, as they hint heavily at later in the movie. It’s hard to say if he works at the grocery store because of a limited intellect (probably not) or because he is limited by society and his environment. His inability to become Employee of the Month despite his hard work seems to indicate the latter.

If you dislike people being shown ANY different treatment because of their disability, well, you probably won’t like any movie that even remotely makes a disability part of the plot. I do feel like this movie treated his disability well. It certainly shows that people make assumptions about others’ capabilities (even Calvin’s), sometimes accurately, and sometimes not even close. I will admit, I didn’t love that they called him “Produce” the entire movie. I don’t recall any characters asking if that was his real name or if he was bothered by the nickname. Perhaps he liked the name, but it was not mentioned, as far as I can remember.

Bottom line: I liked Where Hope Grows. It wasn’t an easy movie to watch or a feel-good movie, per se. Calvin struggles most of the movie, and “Produce” is often mistreated. But the movie doesn’t leave you in despair. “Produce” is also shown as a church-going young man, and that affects the plot, although they don’t dig too deep into God and faith (I would prefer they did). I wouldn’t be opposed to watching this movie again.

Tip for Movie Triggers

Whenever possible, I recommend looking up films on PluggedIn.com or DoesTheDogDie.com before watching to look for any triggers (occasionally Common Sense Media has films that the first two don’t). Unfortunately, Does the Dog Die has a lot of movie covers on the front page of their website (as of Jan 2025), whereas they didn’t before. The movie covers are a little disturbing. I didn’t want to look at several of them, so I’d imagine they would outright trigger some folks. I did email them to ask if they could remove those covers, as they state on their About page that their whole purpose is to not trigger people. Lol A little confusing there. They replied that you have to make a profile and can then turn off the movie covers. Hopefully they remove the movie covers in the future. Despite that weirdness, their resource is nevertheless invaluable.

Movie Review/Trigger-Warning Websites

Image photo by Steshka Willems from Pexels