Sweet Home Alabama
Full Price Feature
You know why I give this a full price feature rating? Because, for your money, you are not going to do any better than this for a while for a romantic comedy with a real actual obstacle to love in it. By now you should have surmised from the preview that Reese Witherspoon's character, a successful New York fashion designer, is engaged to a rich guy, but is actually still married to a boy from her Alabama past. OK, that's great. In a typical movie with such a formula, Boy From Past (in this case the delightful Josh Lucas as Jake) is a winsome treasure you can't imagine her ever having left behind, and the fiance (Patrick Dempsey, channeling JFK Jr.) is a total heel of some kind. Sweet Home Alabama does not insult you with these formulaic generalities, and it also manages to breathe life into the sub-genre of "follow your bliss" as well. My adjectives are "sweet, cute, charming, and lovely," but after some thought, I need to add "genuine" (with a Southern accent of course).
Reese Witherspoon, whom I regretfully once lambasted on these pages, has won me over forever. I mean, look at Election, Legally Blonde, and now Sweet Home Alabama. Where is her Oscar? Oh yeah, the Academy doesn't reward comedy. She would have to assassinate Tom Hanks in order to get on my bad side now. She's completely believable as polished New York designer and honky tonk queen - she's got a flawless side and a mean side, she's richly drawn and totally every girl you know. (Except for looking that amazing after having 2 kids!) In Pigeon Creek, in her designer duds and sleek city walking-fast-with-a-cel phone vibe, she seems out of placeŠand not. Her quandary does not stop there.
Enter the guys. Dreamboats both of them, with totally opposite redeeming and irredeeming qualities, you can't choose for yourself, much less for her. For once the audience doesn't spend the whole movie rolling their eyes at how stupid the heroine is. In fact, you don't know what she is going to do until the credits roll, practically! And on a certain level, both choices are right. Candice Bergen as Dempsey's mom is delicious. Everyone, "good" and "bad" in this film surprised me with their level of honest humanity - embarrassing parents, impatient in-laws/in-laws-to-be, friends, everyone. For that alone the screenwriters Douglas Eboch, C. Jay Cox, director Andy Tennant, and Rick Parks should be lauded.
Andy Tennant directed the unfortunate (but with some great moments) Fools Rush In and the widely underappreciated Anna and the King and Ever After. What Tennant seems to recognize in all these films is human reaction and interaction. He doesn't sacrifice the story to how people "should" behave but how they would. A person with real class would not turn into a bastard all of a sudden, or vice versa, and some friendships can outlast one fight. He doesn't speak the shorthand that Hollywood has created for us, and his scripts benefit from it. Maybe that is why his movies aren't always appreciated - in Ever After, he doesn't present the wicked stepmother as "wicked" with one side comment, he builds her, and still shows her side of the story. Maybe all his films speak to the dysfunctional woman inside me, so find yours and take her. I seriously loved this film, and I hope you will too. And the soundtrack is great!
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These reviews (c) 2002 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but just credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. reviews@cinerina.com Check out previous reviews at: http://www.cinerina.com http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/ - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource http://www.mediamotions.com and http://www.capitol-city.com
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