Sweet Home Alabama

Movie Title: Sweet Home Alabama
Official Website (it might still work): Sweet Home Alabama
Rating (out of 10): 5
Reviewed By: Michael Stevens
Buy the: Video/DVD \| Soundtrack
The Review:

It is always interesting to see how a movie will do compared to its hype, and to see how well a trailer actually follows the movie it represents. In the case of Reese Witherspoon’s latest film, Sweet Home Alabama, the film does not really live up to the hype, nor were the trailers an accurate representation of the film. But, Reese still looks good and some of the film is funny.

The film begins in New York where Melanie Carmichael (Witherspoon, Legally Blonde) is on the cusp of becoming a big time fashion designer, and about to get engaged to a handsome, debonair, and connected man. This gentleman is Andrew (Patrick Dempsey, Scream 3), who just happens to be the son of New York City’s mayor. The Mayor (Candice Bergen, Miss Congeniality) is always thinking about herself and politics, and is not thrilled with her son’s decision. Meanwhile, Melanie is thrilled to be getting married and succeeding in the fashion world after growing up in rural Alabama. Only she has to rush back home to get her divorce finalized from her high school sweetheart. She has been trying for seven years to get her husband Jake (Josh Lucas, A Beautiful Mind) to sign the papers and make the divorce final, but Jake can’t let go of his soul mate, and he has been trying to get her back ever since she left. While in Alabama, Melanie tries everything to get Jake to sign the papers including taking all his money from their joint checking account, re-arranging his house, and insulting him in front of everybody. She also manages to alienate all her old friends like Bobby Ray (Ethan Embry, Disturbing Behavior) who she informs everyone that he is gay. Then she fights with her parents Earl (Fred Ward, Enough) and Pearl Smooter (Mary Kay Place, Girl, Interrupted) over her life and their life. Then we find out she is living a lie regarding her past. So generally speaking she makes a lot of enemies back home in Alabama. This includes Lurlynn (Melanie Lynskey, Ever After), the girl with a baby in the bar, that you might recall from the trailer. Of course in the trailer it was funny and most people watching the trailer laughed at that part, unlike in the film when hardly anyone laughed at that now tired joke. This was a recurring problem for the film.

The screenplay for this Andy Tennant directed film was penned by C. Jay Cox, who based his writings on a story from Douglas Eboch. Other folks in the film include Dakota Fanning, Jen Apgar, Suzi Bass, Andrew Prine, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Fleet Cooper, Sharon Blackwood, Katharine Towne, Jean Smart, Thomas Curtis, Mark Matkevich, and Nathan Lee Graham to name a few.

Judging by the trailers, which one should never trust, I thought Sweet Home Alabama was going to be a nice, funny and enjoyable film with burgeoning star Reese Witherspoon. What you get is a rather boring, not-all-that-funny movie where Reese is just not as good as she was in Legally Blonde or Election or even Cruel Intentions. To end, Sweet Home Alabama garners just five couches, which is probably a bit generous, and that is only because it is occasionally funny.