Sweet Home Alabama

Reese Witherspoon stars as Melanie Smooter in this warming tale of life in a small town over that in the city. A small-town girl, Smooter moves to the Big Apple and becomes Melanie Carmichael, a famous fashion designer. Whilst there, she falls in love with Andrew Hennings (Dempsey), whose mother (Bergen) is mayor of New York. After an amazing romantic gesture, where he rents out Tiffany’s to propose to Melanie, she flies back home to Pigeon Creek, Alabama to take care of some unfinished business.

Despite a seven year absence, when Melanie returns home, she’s greeted by the locals and her parents, who look on with love and sympathy because they know that sooner or later she’ll realize that home is right here. But what Andrew doesn’t know is that Melanie is already married to a local boy, and her family don’t own a plantation but live in a mobile home. Her husband, Jake Perry (Lucas), was her high school sweetheart, but faced with a life of dirty nappies and dishes with a loser, she fled north. Unless Jake gives her a quick divorce, the secrets of her past are going to be splashed all over the front page of the New York Times. Jake never gave her a divorce as he wanted to prove himself, to earn her respect and win her back.

Whilst the film might be a bit predictable, it does have a certain sweetness and charm, with Witherspoon as loveable as ever playing her role as the torn woman. Her supporting cast also do their duty well, with Lucas undergoing a subtle transformation from redneck to a sensitive, intelligent, caring male and Dempsey as the understanding groom-to-be. Sweet Home Alabama is a fantasy, a light-hearted fairy tale, not unlike Witherspoon’s previous comedy, “Legally Blonde”, and worth a viewing.

Elle Woods