Running time: 109 minutes
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Fred Ward, Mary Kay Place, Candice Bergen
Rating 5 out of 10
This forgettable lightweight romantic drama would barely have registered a blip on the public consciousness, never mind topped the US box office, were it not for one factor: Reese Witherspoon. Since breaking out with Legally Blonde, Witherspoon has become one of Hollywood's heavy hitters, but with Sweet Home Alabama, her first outing carrying the full weight of expectation, she provides precious little new evidence of her gifts. Her sassy comedic skills aren't matched by the down home cute and cuddly script that's been woven together using overly familiar plot threads.
The story of someone leaving behind her life in the country to seek fame and fortune in the big city, only to discover there's no place like home, can often be an engaging one, but in its fawning desire to be charming, Sweet Home Alabama manufactures tenderness rather than earns it. After awhile this lack of sincerity becomes less appealing than a bowl of catfish stew.
The film centres on Melanie Smooter (Reese Witherspoon), who leaves behind her pushy mother (Mary Kay Place), her dutiful father (Fred Ward) and their ramshackle home in Pigeon Creek, Alabama and moves to New York, where she reinvents herself as Melanie Carmichael. There she becomes a top fashion designer engaged to Andrew Hennings (Patrick Dempsey), the eligible son of the city's formidable mayor (Candice Bergen). With the world seemingly at her feet, she has only one problem. She's already married.
She returns home for the first time in seven years to try to persuade her childhood sweetheart Josh (Jake Perry), who is still in love with her, to sign the divorce papers. The old sparks begin to fly and soon Melanie finds herself conflicted, torn between the life she thought she was happy with and the one she thought she despised, and the different men in each.
The root of the film's problems lies with the vaguely defined central character. Melanie is more like an idea on paper than a real person on the screen. The gulf between who she is supposed to be and who is she actually is is too wide to bridge and her calculated nature makes her hard to like. She offers little evidence of the sophistication required to be so successful in New York and little of the sentimentality that would tempt her back home, with the result that her dilemma lacks conviction.
The story of someone leaving behind her life in the country to seek fame and fortune in the big city, only to discover there's no place like home, can often be an engaging one, but in its fawning desire to be charming, Sweet Home Alabama manufactures tenderness rather than earns it. After awhile this lack of sincerity becomes less appealing than a bowl of catfish stew.
The film centres on Melanie Smooter (Reese Witherspoon), who leaves behind her pushy mother (Mary Kay Place), her dutiful father (Fred Ward) and their ramshackle home in Pigeon Creek, Alabama and moves to New York, where she reinvents herself as Melanie Carmichael. There she becomes a top fashion designer engaged to Andrew Hennings (Patrick Dempsey), the eligible son of the city's formidable mayor (Candice Bergen). With the world seemingly at her feet, she has only one problem. She's already married.
She returns home for the first time in seven years to try to persuade her childhood sweetheart Josh (Jake Perry), who is still in love with her, to sign the divorce papers. The old sparks begin to fly and soon Melanie finds herself conflicted, torn between the life she thought she was happy with and the one she thought she despised, and the different men in each.
The root of the film's problems lies with the vaguely defined central character. Melanie is more like an idea on paper than a real person on the screen. The gulf between who she is supposed to be and who is she actually is is too wide to bridge and her calculated nature makes her hard to like. She offers little evidence of the sophistication required to be so successful in New York and little of the sentimentality that would tempt her back home, with the result that her dilemma lacks conviction.
