Top Box Office Movies - Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet Home Alabama (2002) Touchstone Pictures
1 hr. 49 mins.
Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Fred Ward, Mark Kay Place, Patrick Dempsey, Josh Lucas, Candice Bergen, Jean Smart, Ethan Embry
Directed by: Andy Tennant

Sweet Home Alabama

Rating:

E-MAIL FRANK OCHIENG

Photo: Touchstone Pictures

Well Southern-born actress Reese Witherspoon dutifully returns to her countrified roots in the cozy but grandly pared down romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama. Although the winsome actress is afforded the opportunity to demonstrate her usual perky personal that has helped her in previous sardonic fare such as Election and Legally Blonde, Witherspoon cannot lend her magic to this irritating and witless marshmallow of a movie. Sweet Home Alabama is about as inviting as sipping on two-week old moonshine that was left sitting in your grandfather's danky basement. Director Andy Tennant, who breathed life into the elegant and wistful feature Ever After, helms what appears to be a scattershot and cliched romancer that is downright condescending and unbearably flighty.

Both Tennant and screenwriter C. Jay Cox tap into obligatory references that paint the down-home folks in good ol' 'Bama as backwoods bumpkins while trying to pass off their Hollywood version of the Deep South (specifically Pigeon Creek, Ala.--the movie's featured setting) as a spoofy celebrated celluloid copycat of Andy Griffith's televised fictional utopia Mayberry. To recite a tagline from a memorable vice-presidential debate from several years ago, just as Dan Quayle was no JFK, the Sweet Home Alabama's Pigeon Creek is certainly no Mayberry! As a life long New Englander, this reviewer found "Sweet" rather souring in its insulting and cartoonish presentation. Whenever you have a generic screwball comedy that shamelessly borrows its movie title from a catchy classic Lynrd Skynrd song then depends on this same tune to fortify the flick with sugary charm and personality, then its time to surrender by waving your frantic arms! Predictable, formulaic, artificial and insufferable, Sweet Home Alabama is about as durable as a dried-up honeysuckle in a dusty wind storm.

Witherspoon plays Melanie Carmichael, a New York-based fashion designer who's on the fast track in her professional and personal live. Melanie, as we can see, is an ambitious go-getter that explains her materialistic makeup. In a nutshell, this young career gal is climbing the ladder with no intention of looking down below. Things begin to become interesting even more when her dashing companion Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) proposes marriage to his sweetie. Obviously, Melanie is overwhelmed with joy that her prestigious boytoy wants her to become his chosen life partner through eternal marital bliss. Besides, think of the status that this would bring her! By marrying her ideal guy, she would also gain political clout since Andrew's mother happens to be New York's no nonsense mayor (Candice Bergen channeling her former TV alter ego in Murphy Brown-ish mode). So everything is all set in Melanie's universe. Her fiance' is a wonderful man who caters to her every need. And her hotshot job is rewarding and challenging to boot. So what could possibly go wrong?

Well, it seems as if the up-and-coming Melanie Carmichael hasn't been totally truthful about her pending circumstances. Apparently, she was anxious to put her past behind her and never considered the consequences of taking care of unfinished business in her quest to bury her humble hometown memories. Among the major faux pas that she has to deal with is her insistence on getting a divorce from her hunky husband Jake (Josh Lucas), a high school sweetheart she married during her secondary schooling years. Melanie has not contacted Jake in a number of years. Poor Andrew has no idea that his lovey-dovey honeybunny was previously hitched. She's legally married to Jake and he never bothered to sign on the dotted line to terminate their union. Still, it's imperative that she obtains his signature on the divorce papers and quick. Also not so good is Melanie's colossal fib that she told Andrew regarding her so-called bourgeois upbringing in the upper crest society in one of Alabama's elite families. Never mind the simple fact that her father Earl (Fred Ward) is an eccentric buzzard who likes dressing up for Civil War re-enactments and her mother Pearl (Mary Kay Place) who is as dense as sassafras pudding. Truth be told is that Melanie's parents are about as rich as a Baptist church mouse! Before she can fully enjoy her life with Andrew and continue her merriment in the hustle and bustle lifestyle of the North, she must confront the conflicts that she abandoned previously in the South. Hence, the movie's subtle message lamely hints at that old adage: "one can never go home again". Will Melanie Carmichael be the poster girl for this very same sentiment?

And before one can click their remote control en route to an old Hee Haw episode, Melanie is on a plane to her home state of Alabama in an effort to clean her dirty laundry before the dreamy engagement to Andrew and the rest of her big city dreams disappear like a beaver's nest along the Mississippi River. When Melanie arrives on the scene, she brings along a snooty disposition that sends off the "holier than thou" vibes in which her family and other associates find rather annoying. Because of this regal routine of Melanie's, Jake decides to ruffles her feathers a bit in a bid to take her down a few notches.

It doesn't take long for the movie to showcase the variety of "colorful" characters that make up the hayseed spirit of Pigeon Creek. Besides learning about the tidbit that Melanie's parents are proud owners of Confederate flag pillowcases, we get a glance at the other specimens roaming about town. One would be shocked if they didn't get a chance to witness an expected scene of beer-bellied Bubba-types swilling booze in a darkly lit tavern. Even stuck up Melanie, upon briefly talking to a colleague, marvels at the sight of her friend's cute baby being tended to in a bar. And isn't it splendid to know that the black characters are so resilient in modern day Alabama that the movie takes time to spotlight...ready for this...a loyal plantation maid? Gee, how quaint, huh? So we have Confederate flag pillowcases and a black plantation maid featured in the same film? All that's missing now are the D.W. Griffith postcards in the town's gift shop! Hey...on second thought, I don't blame Melanie for pretending that her old stomping grounds didn't exist in the first place. Based on this animated setting in Hooterville, I would depart for better opportunities elsewhere as well.

Much like a slow underhanded pitch in a softball game, we see the obvious dilemma coming along crystal clear to the point that we're able to hit this concept out of the park. The tepid script is not challenging enough nor does it put any stock into why we would care about Melanie and her lovelorn woes. In fact, the dilemma is weak-minded to begin with. Would audiences, particularly the female segment, feel sorry for Melanie's ambivalence about choosing between the dapper sophistication of Dempsey's privileged heart-of-gold guy Andrew or Lucas' rural rogue of sweetness Jake? Both men are Prince Charming material stationed on either side of the Mason-Dixon line. And from the moment the script dictates that Melanie confront Jake in a gesture of regaining her freedom from her Dogpatch heyday, everybody and their pet poodle saw the writing on the wall being that a.) she still has untapped feelings for her ex beau (note the sappy flashback scenes with Melanie and Jake as tender tykes in love) and b.) no matter how much you try to dismiss who you are or where you came from, the truth is that nobody can escape their real identity or sense of heritage. That's all well and good but this cockeyed showcase is too feeble bring home this point in a savvy manner. Plus, if Andrew is such a treasure who finds no fault in his adoring galpal, then why doesn't Melanie just trust his good-natured instincts and level with him in the first place? After all, Andrew is not a cad or a creep by any means and probably would be receptive to his woman's complicated past. But then again, if Melanie showed such common sense, then this shallow movie wouldn't have an excuse for existing or be necessary to snore through, right?

Sweet Home Alabama has a lively soundtrack but that's the only thing that's palatable in this cheeky country fried fable. Witherspoon is usually dependable whether she's playing an airhead, sexpot, or overachieving smartypants. But here, she's reduced to repetitive wincing exclamations of "oh my God" that I am afraid won't qualify as the top catchphrase of the movie season. She struts through this project with blatant indifference. Supposedly Witherspoon's Melanie is a snobby princess we're to find quite endearing thus paving the way for the transition of her comeuppance to register when she finally embraces her old town's atmospheric synergy. But Witherspoon's stuck up attitude feels rather transparent and her spoiled demeanor is utterly lukewarm and shabbily forced. She's mastered the art of playing spunky spirits but her work as a snotty glamour gal just doesn't gel. Tennant's harried heroine awkwardly carries off this sense of urgency in shockingly lightweight fashion. Quite frankly, Witherspoon is just coasting along in a flimsy film that doesn't quite challenge her resourceful standards.

The supporting cast hangs around like untouched furniture as they wait for the rudimentary material to stimulate the comical pulse of this lackluster film. And if focusing on tired stereotypical southern hicks weren't bad enough, the story arbitrarily throws in a gay character (gee, how conveniently progressive, huh?)--Melanie's best buddy Bobby Ray (Ethan Embry) - while balancing its scale by lambasting the familiar breed known as the heartless self-absorbed politician (and of the northern variety too...you see, this futile flick demonstrates that it can poke fun of Yankee sensibilities as well!). What an equal opportunity scathing, huh? Big whoop!

Overall, I don't buy one unconvincing moment of Sweet Home Alabama or star Reese Witherspoon's fake realization that her REAL home is where the heart is. This is one southern belle who won't be remembered very kindly in the annals of pop culture. So Ellie May Clampett, Blanche Devereaux, the Sugarbaker sisters, Scarlet O'Hara, the Dixie Chicks...don't worry ladies 'cause daddy's "Sugar Bean" Melanie Carmichael could never hold a candle to your entertaining southern hospitality. This disposable offering is about as lyrical as a darn broken bango.

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Frank Ochieng
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