Sweet Home Alabama contains a charming story about redemption, forgiveness and grace. Unfortunately, the charming story collapses beneath a contrived collection of cliches and caricatures resulting in a mediocre film with a plethora of plot problems.
Reese Witherspoon plays Melanie, a successful New York fashion designer on the way up. Early on she becomes engaged to one of New York's most eligible bachelors who also happens to be the mayor's son. The minor complication that serves as the turning point in the first act is that Melanie is still married to the redneck loser she left behind in-you guessed it-sweet home Alabama.
She has been trying to divorce him for six years but he refuses to sign the divorce papers so she has to make a trip (just so we can hear the title song, I think). The neo-urban sophisticate is forced to come to terms with her down-home roots when she returns to the small town she left behind. Frankly, Reese Witherspoon does a much better job confronting a different kind of roots problem in Legally Blonde.
The questions that are supposed to keep us on the edge of our seats is will she get her husband to sign the papers or not, and which man will she ultimately end up marrying. As the story unfolded it was pretty clear where we were heading. This is a bad thing in storytelling, but an even worse thing is that I didn't really care that much either way.
There were inspired moments of local color and idiosyncratic humor (look for scenes involving a cat and a stick of dynamite, explosives and anvils, and a bunch of Civil War re-enactors). Unfortunately, none of the inspired moments were necessary to the plot. I think a better movie could have been made if they had taken those inspired moments and moved them from the periphery to the center.
Sweet Home Alabama is not a terrible movie. I laughed a couple of times, and there were a few moving moments. But when all is said and done, we are left with a mediocre movie with adequate performances in a poorly structured plot. If your only choices are watching this movie or the Anna Nicole show, by all means watch this movie. But if you happen to have Sleepless in Seattle or Notting Hill lying around, old good beats new bad any day of the week.
Reese Witherspoon plays Melanie, a successful New York fashion designer on the way up. Early on she becomes engaged to one of New York's most eligible bachelors who also happens to be the mayor's son. The minor complication that serves as the turning point in the first act is that Melanie is still married to the redneck loser she left behind in-you guessed it-sweet home Alabama.
She has been trying to divorce him for six years but he refuses to sign the divorce papers so she has to make a trip (just so we can hear the title song, I think). The neo-urban sophisticate is forced to come to terms with her down-home roots when she returns to the small town she left behind. Frankly, Reese Witherspoon does a much better job confronting a different kind of roots problem in Legally Blonde.
The questions that are supposed to keep us on the edge of our seats is will she get her husband to sign the papers or not, and which man will she ultimately end up marrying. As the story unfolded it was pretty clear where we were heading. This is a bad thing in storytelling, but an even worse thing is that I didn't really care that much either way.
There were inspired moments of local color and idiosyncratic humor (look for scenes involving a cat and a stick of dynamite, explosives and anvils, and a bunch of Civil War re-enactors). Unfortunately, none of the inspired moments were necessary to the plot. I think a better movie could have been made if they had taken those inspired moments and moved them from the periphery to the center.
Sweet Home Alabama is not a terrible movie. I laughed a couple of times, and there were a few moving moments. But when all is said and done, we are left with a mediocre movie with adequate performances in a poorly structured plot. If your only choices are watching this movie or the Anna Nicole show, by all means watch this movie. But if you happen to have Sleepless in Seattle or Notting Hill lying around, old good beats new bad any day of the week.