There’s no place like home. which is why so many people leave it.
In “Sweet Home Alabama,” Reese Witherspoon plays Melanie Carmichael, a small-town girl who has escaped her southern past to become a successful fashion designer in New York City. Obtaining everything a city girl could ask for, including the son of the mayor, she has virtually forgotten about her Alabama roots; but when her charming and handsome boyfriend proposes to her in the middle of Tiffany & Co., she is forced to return home – to get a divorce from her first husband.
Failing to inform her new fianc? (or his very political middling mayor mother) of her humbled past, she tries to solve the matter quickly without ruffling her perfect big city life. (In interviews with major magazines, Carmichael has described her southern upbringing as a modern Margaret Mitchell dream.) So she travels back to the land of doublewides, beat-up trucks and mullets; but like most characters that go back home, she disregards her ill feelings and rediscovers the comforts of the past, which includes her static relationship with her husband. In the end she must choose between her dashing fianc? or her charming, but irritating, husband.
Witherspoon is the major attraction of “Sweet Home Alabama.” She is so damn cute, you can’t help but to like her or any movie she appears in. Even in roles when her characters are despicable, like “Election” and “American Psycho”, she is still likable. Her adorable alpha personality shines here as she continues to prove herself to be a great star.
But despite the charming characters and the actors who play them, the film is just fluff, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Okay, the film is not unique, there are situations and conflicts that have appeared in dozens of movies, but one shouldn’t be bothered by it.
You know where the movie is going, but it’s a comfortable and enjoyable ride, so you don’t care. If a movie like this were to shed its comfortable Hollywood shell and become a realistic depiction of life, it would lose so much of its character. This is not a film where one seeks truth; it is a film where one seeks escape.
It’s nice to think that home is sweeter after a long absence, that first love is true love, and that happy endings occur at the ninety-minute mark. So the movie isn’t in danger of snagging any Oscar nominations, big deal.
In the end the film is as comfortable as any hometown (or at least the thought of it) can be.