The Fields Are Alive With The Sound Of Lynyrd Skynyrd (Sweet Home Alabama (DVD))

Member Name: dooeyyooey

Product:	Sweet Home Alabama (DVD)
Date:	20/09/09 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice landscapes; good performances.

Disadvantages: Subplots fail to add anything to the main story.

SWEET HOME ALABAMA is a romantic comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey.
Directed by Andy Tennant, it was released in September 2002.


Plot
===

Melanie Carmichael is an up-and-coming fashion designer.
After she becomes engaged to Andrew, whose mother is the Mayor of New York City, she decides to go back home to Alabama, claiming that she wants to tell her family, whom she has not seen in 7 years, about her engagement personally.

However, when she arrives at her home town it becomes clear that she has not been completely honest about herself and her background: Her real surname is Smooter and she is not the daughter of a rich plantation owner, coming instead from a working class family.
Moreover, the real reason for her trip home is that she is already married, and needs to obtain a divorce from her husband Jake before she can marry Andrew.

Melanie and Jake were childhood sweethearts, but their relationship deteriorated after a series of personal disappointments, ending with Melanie moving away to pursue her dreams and start a new life.

Melanie arrives at Jake's house demanding a divorce, but he refuses.
Despite their constant bickering (or because of it), it is apparent that neither has fully dealt with the demise of their relationship.

Back in New York City, Andrew's ambitious mother is not pleased about her son's impending wedding. She is grooming him for a distinguished political career, possibly the presidency, and does not consider Melanie to possess the required pedigree to be her son's consort.
Alarmed that her investigations cannot even find a "Melanie Carmichael", she sends her assistant out on the trail of the real Melanie, intent on discovering information that will stop their wedding.

Meanwhile, unaware of both Melanie's predicament and his mother's intentions, Andrew travels to Alabama to surprise his fiancee...


Cast
===

Melanie "Carmichael" Smooter - Reese Witherspoon
Jake - Josh Lucas
Andrew - Patrick Dempsey
The Mayor - Candice Bergen
Young Jake - Thomas Curtis
Young Melanie - Dakota Fanning

Born and raised in the South, Reese Witherspoon gets to put her native accent to good use in this film. She gives a solid performance as Melanie, who turns out to be not so much a delicate southern belle as a tough and quite mischievous young woman.

Josh Lucas is well cast as estranged husband Jake, playing the character with a somewhat infuriating combination of rugged charm and defiant stubborness.

Both Candice Bergen and Patrick Dempsey give good perfomances as mother and son, although neither is stretched in their roles as a hard, cunning politician and a gallant, upper-class, handsome man, respectively.

Patrick Dempsey is immensely charming as Andrew; his is the most likeable character: noble, sensitive and understanding.

There is one rather glaring casting mistake, though: the young Melanie seen at the beginning of the film is played by a girl who is some 3 years younger than the actor playing the young Jake. Three years in adulthood is not a significant age difference, but when it comes to pre-teens, it is very noticeable and it makes for a very bizarre pairing.


Production
=======

Although set in Alabama, the film was actually almost entirely shot in the state of Georgia.

SWEET HOME ALABAMA was a huge commercial success, for such a middle-of-the-road romantic comedy, grossing over 180 million dollars worldwide.

As usual, the plot revolves around a girl torn between two suitors.
What differenciates this film from so many other romantic comedies is that conflict remains wholly contained within the Melanie <-> Jake dynamic, and there is no antagonism between the two men, despite the fact that they are effectively rivals.

Melanie also emerges as the toughest character of the three. In a scene right at the beginning, she claims that she does not have a "thick skin" like Andrew's. Not so, and the occasional moment of insecurity and emotional vulnerability aside, she has a steeliness to match Jake's intractability.

Despite this being a romantic comedy, the humour revolves as much - if not more - around the "southerness" and "smallness" of the town where the action is set and the quirks of its inhabitants, than on the romantic entanglements of the protagonists.

The low point has to be the gay subplot involving one of Melanie's childhood friends. It is just contrived and serves as an intentional distraction from the main story, which does not have much holding it together, as it is.

Then there is also the recreation of Civil War battles with which the community is very enthusiastically involved, with them playing the Confederates, of course.
It is understandable why this was written into the story: it reinforces the quaintness and indiosyncracy of southern culture, and these sort of re-enactments do take place in the US - yet it comes across as a gimmick, and not a good one.

On the plus side, there are some scenes where it is possible to glimpse the impressive natural beauty of the scenery. Said beauty will probably be more noticeable on a large screen than in a smaller one (I first saw the film in the cinema, where it made a visual impact not to be experienced when seen on television).


Soundtrack
========

No prizes for guessing the theme song.
Indeed, Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" provides more than the title for the film, and its opening chords and chorus are heard frequently throughout the film.
Now, that is a great song, and those are some great chords and choruses, but after a while the repetition becomes tiresome.


= // =


Overall, it is an enjoyable film, with a considerable amount of charm. Certainly not groundbreaking, but easy to watch, bar a few unecessary scenes.

Although I would not recommend anyone to purposefully set aside time to watch it - if it happens to be on, it is unlikely it will disappoint fans of the romcom genre.

Summary: Average southern romantic comedy.