For a movie as romantic and unlikely as this movie, I can say honestly that it has one virtue, Reese Witherspoon, but all the rest is pure self indulgence , told from the point of view of someone who has lived in the Lala land of Hollywood for too long to get a grip on reality.

So what had some potential as a story that has some passion, and some real issues, comes off as a self conscious little ditty, full of stereotypes and half truths-afraid to go all the way with the drama, and fearful of offending if it cuts to the quick, focusing on issues that are still prevalent in the South , ignorance and bigotry. Come to think of it, there is ignorance and bigotry in the North as well. It just expresses itself somewhat differently.

Let's start somewhere closer to the truth. Ah, but this is Hollywood. And that, my friends is the biggest failure in this film generally. Once you rewrite your story according to the whims of a test audience, can you claim artistic integrity? I think not.

DIRECTING and The STORY

Andy Tenant has directed movies that I like a lot better than this one, including a sweet romantic comedy, Fools Rush In (97), and a lavish remake of Anna and the King. (99) On the negative side, he was also responsible for Drew Barrymore’s Fairy Tale debacle, Ever After, (98) which I confess I liked in spite of itself. Come to think of it, looking at this director’s proclivity for impossible romantic fantasy, maybe Sweet Home Alabama fits the filmography after all. However, of all these efforts, it lacks the freshness or the originality of the others.

Tenant who started his career as a dancer, turned to writing and then directing , TV at first, actually is an interesting guy, who brings what he can to the production. As a writing dancer, I suppose it would be well choreographed dialog. (Joke)

The attempts at humor fail pretty badly, except in a few isolated cases and several snippets of dialog. It is clear to me, having now lived in the “South” for the past five years, that Tennant, who hails from Illinois originally although he has been in California for a long time, just doesn’t really understand much about the life and culture in the south.

The movie was actually shot in and around Atlanta Georgia, and picks several little town locations for the action. Not a single scene was shot in Alabama, which is the Deep South, whereas Atlanta is much more cosmopolitan than that. And the economy is generally agrarian, not the big factory that employs our southern gal’s daddy, or the tourist based curio shop that is the other aspect of the economy shown. The movie quickly descends into stereotypes which allows for no life between the two extremes in the South. That is, living on the plantation manor or living in a cheap double wide, barely getting by. I didn’t catch any farmers in these scenes, and the large black population is virtually invisible.

To give him credit, however, Tennant is not very nice to the pressured and political New Yorkers either. That comes, I suspect, from having lived in California for so long. He can feel free to have disdain for both. The scenes in New York, the director claims, were the first shot after Sept 11 of 2001. He is the third director I have heard make the same claim.

The story was officially credited to Douglas Eboch for the story, and C. Jay Cox as the screenwriter, although Tenant refers to him as his “ writing partner. “ It does include some anecdotes that the director contributed from his own life. In the movie an legend is told about a cat, dynamite and a bank. The incident was told to younger Andy Tenant by his real life grandfather Andy Devine, and it happened in Arizona in 1932.

EDITING (BY POPULAR VOTE?)

The DVD includes several deleted scenes, all explained by the director. He claims the entire story was changed based on the response of certain test audiences. The original ending, which was clever and dramatic, was changed to the theatrical release. Personally, I think the story would have had better depth with the deleted scenes left in. So the movie was crafted for commercial success. And while it won’t sweep the Oscars, it made over 100 million dollars the first week of its release.

OTHER FILM ELEMENTS

Cinematography is great, polished and tells the story well. The set design, costuming and hair styles are pretty good, and the spaces and lighting are well used. The opening scene is actually quite beautiful, if melodramatic. The music features a lot of country banjo strumming, and wailing harmonicas, that was pleasant , but I am not rushing out to buy the sound track

THE PLOT

The movie opens on a beach with two ten year olds running. There is lightening and thunder, and the boy who is ten years old asks the little girl to marry him. Lightening strikes as they kiss. This pretty much tells the story. Maybe I disremember childhood, but I don’t remember romance and tender kissing at the age of 10.

Flash to many years later, with Melanie about to open her first style show in the big Apple. She is still “from the South”, but she has “made it “ designing clothes. High pressure and high competition. It turns out to be a bigger night for her, even than that. Because it is the night that the popular and handsome Mayor’s son Andy asks her to marry him.

But there is just one problem. She married her childhood sweet heart in "small town somewhere" Alabama , and he hasn’t signed the divorce papers yet. So she heads home to Alabama after 7 years being gone, to get Jake to sigm the divorce papers.

There are some big and little lies going on, and it will be the purpose of this movie to discover them. No one is who they seem, and the predictable ending occurs pretty much as expected.

Here are a few of the more interesting lines from the movie:

(Jake) “Honey, just cuz I talk slow doesn’t mean I’m stupid”

(Audience response). No but there are other ways to evaluate mental capacity, and you ain’t swift on them either.


(Jake) “Are you sh*tting me?”

(Audience response) What a horribly repulsive thought!

(Earl Smooter)” You can’t ride two horses with one a-s-s. “

(Audience) really? Might be interesting to try. Size matters.

(Mayor Kate Hennings to Melanie’s mother) “Why don’t you go back to your double wide and fry something?”

(Audience) As long as you make enough for everyone.

Pitiful isn’t it?

CAST/PERFORMANCES

Reese Witherspoon as Melanie- Melanie is not a very likable person, not sweet, but definitely the only performance which alone is worth watching the movie for, although the others weren’t bad. She puts a lot of character into her part, and even becomes a mean hurtful drunk in one long scene. I prefer this to something more sappy. More of this kind of honesty and complexity would have made this a better movie. She was a more developed but less likable character in this movie then her Legally Blonde role,. The vehicle of the film simply does not support her performance.

Josh Lucas as Jake. This is the man she married and despite the sparks that fly, there is never any question about where this movie is going to end. He was admirable and attractive, and sounded and acted all right, although curiously passionless unless he was in a scene shouting at Melanie.

Patrick Dempsey-as the Mayor’s son, handsome, attentive, and charming, sort of the young prince of New York. Actually granniemose was rooting for him to get the girl. He was ambiguous in this role, and was angry only once, although he was deceived all along. I suppose he was put in just to make it interesting, as though the choice was NOT between who was WORTHY of marrying Melanie. Personally, I think they could both do better than hooking up with her.

Candice Bergen as Kate, the outspoken B*tch on wheels, the potential mother in law from hell. She spouts statements that no other political could pull off, and I find her not believable but funny. Bad writing killed this character, who appears without a single redeeming feature.

Mary Kay Place as Pear-Melanie’s mom, and her part is played with some character, as she urges her kid to be successful, so she doesn’t end up the same as she did. Which isn’t all that bad, unless you are looking at material success. I never understood why she wouldn’t visit her daughter in New York.

Fred Ward as Earl-This may be my second favorite character, because he was , of all of them the most believable. He has southern pride, succeed at being charming and full of dignity despite his failings at material success.

Ethan Embry as Bobby Ray-this is the guy who has been “in the closet” until Melanie in a spate of meanness, calls him out in front of his friends. My favorite character, because he manages to be very funny, a little bit sad, and very human. A very likable guy with a sweet smile.

That’s all I can say. The effort done wore me out.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION

The movie is really silly and romantic, and fails to be a better story because the best parts were edited out. Oh, but this is just a movie. Real life in the South is a whole lot funnier, and you can take that from me, “a real Yankee b*tch,” to quote the movie. It ain't SWEET , it ain't HOME and it ain't even ALABAMA! What more can I say? Don’t waste your time with this one.

















Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older