Themes: Haunted By the Past, Rags To Riches, Wedding Bells
Main Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Candice Bergen, Mary Kay Place
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
After establishing herself as a bankable star with the fish out of water comedy Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon returns in what could be described as a "fish back in water" comedy. Melanie Carmichael (Witherspoon) is a successful New York fashion designer who is dating Andrew Hennings (Patrick Dempsey), a wealthy socialite whose mother, Katherine Hennings (Candice Bergen), is the Big Apple's mayor. One day, Andrew pops the big question and asks Melanie to marry him; Melanie is overjoyed, but unknown to Andrew, Melanie has some unfinished business to take care of first. Despite her polished uptown image, Melanie grew up poor in the deep South, and as a teenager she married her high school sweetheart Jake Perry (Josh Lucas). Things went sour and Melanie moved East, reinventing herself along the way, but Jake never bothered to legally end their marriage. Now Melanie has to return to her hometown of Pigeon Creek, AL, to tell her parents (Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place) the news and convince Jake to grant her a divorce; however, the more time she spends with her old flame, the more she feels sparks flying between them again, while she also learns her Eastern affectations don't fly with everyone back home. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
After a string of edgy and often deliberately unsympathetic performances in such films as Freeway, American Psycho, and Election, Reese Witherspoon was probably as surprised as anyone that America was ready to let her become its latest sweetheart. But after the runaway success of Legally Blonde, the budding superstar stuck to safe, fairy-tale material with this mostly winning romantic comedy. Populated by lovable eccentrics and plain but good folks, Sweet Home Alabama's Pigeon Creek is indistinguishable from any number of other sanitized, fictional Southern towns. But Witherspoon, with her kewpie countenance and iron spine, differs just enough from the conventional leading lady to remove the aftertaste from the saccharine material. Taking her cues from the conniving Julia Roberts school of heroines rather than the blander Meg Ryan variety, she drinks, cusses, and condescends her way to a perverse likability. The more she resembles a Jerry Springer guest, the more the audience cheers her on. The film's reassuring "I'm okay, you're okay" geographic relativism may not play well to self-satisfied Manhattanites, but it sure goes down well everywhere else. Heartthrobs Ethan Embry, Patrick Dempsey, and Joshua Lucas provide the requisite broad-based sex appeal, while everyone from Candice Bergen and Jean Smart to Mary Kay Place supplies laughs and lovable stereotypes. Jewel chimes in with the inevitable Lynyrd Skynyrd cover, and boom -- something safe for everyone, like all the best blockbusters. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Jay Pelissier - Art Director, Jeanne McCarthy - Casting, Juel Bestrop - Casting, Kathleen Chopin - Casting, Sophie de Rakoff Carbonell - Costume Designer, Louis D'Esposito - First Assistant Director, Andy Tennant - Director, Troy T. Takaki - Editor, Tracey Wadmore-Smith - Editor, Michael Fottrell - Executive Producer, Jon Jashni - Executive Producer, Wink Mordaunt - Executive Producer, George Fenton - Composer (Music Score), Dawn Solér - Musical Direction/Supervision, Laura Z. Wasserman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Clay Griffith - Production Designer, Andrew Dunn - Cinematographer, Stokely Chaffin - Producer, Neal H. Moritz - Producer, Lisa K. Sessions - Set Designer, Mary H. Ellis - Sound/Sound Designer, Douglas J. Eboch - Screen Story, C. Jay Cox - Screenwriter, George Watters II - Supervising Sound Editor, Suhail F. Kafity - Supervising Sound Editor
