YOU CAN take the girl out of Alabama, but . . .
In "Sweet Home Alabama," that girl is Melanie (Dakota Fanning) and, when we meet her, she's a preteen and telling her sort-of boyfriend, Jake (Thomas Curtis), she's going to be busy for a while before she's ready for marriage. There's a bolt of lightning, as if to cement this precocious utterance. And another. Same place twice.
Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey and Candice Bergen star in "Sweet Home Alabama."
(Touchstone Pictures)
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Cut to Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) as a grown-up woman, on the verge of success and love. She's a break-through designer in New York City. And Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) the JFK-like son of the New York City mayor (Candice Bergen) just stuck a Tiffany rock on her finger.
She takes a quick trip home to 'bama to patch up differences with her folks (Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place) and tell them the news. And she runs into older Jake (Josh Lucas), to whom she is already married. Whoa, okay. And she wants him to sign those divorce papers, so she can get with her second husband.
Jake's real nice, real down home. And in the tired moral coding of this movie, the emphasis is on real. Real, at least, in that Hollywood studio way, which is to say, about as unreal as any character could be.
Around Jake is a state full of lovable, equally "real" southerners who could probably double as the cast of "The Country Bears." My favorite is Fred Ward as a rather unconvincing good ol' boy who loves Civil War reenactment battles. He's about as Dixie as California Gov. Gray Davis. But he does get the movie's only funny line, which suggests that no one has enough posterior width and breadth to ride two horses.
Some tiredly familiar rules apply here: People who live in the heartland are real. People who live in New York City are vain (that designer crowd, you know?) and out of touch. This mayor and Andrew are Democrats. Of course. And when prodigal daughter Melanie returns to humble Pigeon Creek, the one-water-tank town she ran away from, well, you can see what the Yankees did to the girl. She's uppity, sasses her mama and she's mean.
Obviously, you won't be watching "Sweet Home Alabama" for its profound insights into American society. It's the usual romantic comedy vehicle for up-and-coming stars.
But Andy Tennant's direction is appropriately bright, and the lead performers are sweet enough. I don't expect I'll be the only one who thinks Lucas is channeling Matthew McConaughey, but he's got a charm about him. And if you're a fan of Witherspoon, this movie was produced, shot, edited and distributed entirely for you. The crew has done its job for her – everyone from the hairdressers to cinematographer Andrew Dunn. She glides through this movie with perfect hair. Her most picturesque expressions are caught in all their poetic motion. And she's a natural charmer herself. As for this story, well, Southern Gal don't need it around anyhow.
SWEET HOME ALABAMA (PG-13, 109 minutes) – Contains some obscenity and heavy drinking. Area theaters.
