Walking Across Egypt (1999) on Netflix

Plot summary

Mattie Rigsbee is a widow in the Deep South with firm religious convictions. Her grown children have left home for a town of their own, and she feels lonely in her house without them. The local dogcatcher, Lamar Benfield, becomes a friend to her, and through that friendship she comes to know his nephew Wesley, an orphaned teenager held in juvenile detention after a car theft. Mattie decides that the boy lacks direction in his life. She believes that a little instruction in Christianity would give him the guidance he needs, and she sets out to lead him toward it.