Catherine Keener in 'Little Pink House' explores a real-life eminent domain case

``Little Pink House'' deals with a legal case that has implications for everyone who owns their own home, or hopes to, or just aspires to having a precious, inviolate space where the world can't get at you.

It tells the true story of Susettle Kelo, a paramedic who decided she wanted to live in a quiet place, so she bought a house in New London, Conn., completely renovated it and painted it pink, as in the John Mellencamp song. In 1997, New London was a working-class neighborhood with a depressed economy, but Kelo had a beautiful view, the kind usually reserved for people with money.

Much of the success of ``Little Pink House'' comes from the casting and the performance of Catherine Keener, an actress that has, simultaneously, an aura of glumness and an atmosphere of fun about her. That is, she seems like she has been sad for a long time, but now she's OK. She has her house, and she's at peace. But then Pfizer pharmaceuticals wants to move in, and the city strikes a deal for the company to build their facility right where her house is standing. Suddenly legal notices are arriving by mail, and smiling young women are showing up with clipboards and offering money from the city to buy her out.

The concept of eminent domain says that the government has the right to take your property (after properly compensating you) in cases when it needs to build something in the public interest -- say, a tunnel, or a highway. But where do you draw the line in terms of defining the public interest? Does it extend to inviting a major company to build a plant, if that will increase the tax base? By that token, should every corner drug store disappear to build a Walgreen's or a CVS, assuming the latter can pay more in taxes and employ more people?

``Little Pink House'' addresses these issues just as a matter of course, as it tells the specific story of Kelo, who gradually and reluctantly becomes her neighborhood's spokesman. At the heart of this movie is how every person, not only on screen but in the audience watching, feels about the concept of home. It is, as it turns out, an intensely visceral thing. And if you put an actress of Keener's emotional focus and innate homespun appeal in the middle of a street, blocking her house from being crushed by bulldozers, you have drama.

Add into the mix two villains, the governor and the head of the town's development corporation, played by Aaron Douglas and Jeanne Tripplehorn, respectively. These are characters that are at least semi-fictionalized. The governor has presidential aspirations and wants to show that he's brought jobs to Connecticut. The development corporation head is even worse. As played by Tripplehorn, she is someone capable of genuinely convincing herself that any side is right that happens to be paying her salary.

``Little Pink House'' tells a story with lots of bends and turns and -- if you can resist looking up Susette Kelo on the internet -- surprises. It's an entertaining movie; but to an extent it's also a public service, in that it persuades the audience to think about an issue it might never have previously considered.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicle's movie critic.

Little Pink House

3 stars out of 4 stars Drama. Starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Directed by Courtney Balaker. (Unrated. 98 minutes.)