Stay home rather than go to 'Alabama'
by C. Spencer Beggs
Scene Editor
After sitting through "Sweet Home Alabama," audiences will probably remember the words to Lynard Skynard's famous rock anthem of the same name better than the plot of this film.
Melanie Carmichael (Reese Witherspoon) has it all; she's got great friends, she's the hottest new fashion designer in New York and her JFK Jr.-esque Mr. Right/son of the mayor has just proposed to her. There's one snag: before she gets married, she has to get her estranged husband in her small Alabama hometown to agree to a divorce.
So, Melanie makes a clandestine trip back home and back down memory lane to the life she left behind eight years ago. Enter Melanie's Mr. Not-So-Right-Anymore-But-Still-Oh-So-Right redneck husband Jake (Josh Lucas) and the rest of her childhood cronies who don't take so kindly to Melanie's big city ways. Hilarity ensues.
"Sweet Home Alabama" suffers from a severe case of lack-of-plot-itis. At first, the audience thinks that the movie will be about Melanie torturing her ex into signing the divorce papers, but he succumbs to her dirty tactics in the first 10 minutes. Then, it seems that the movie will be about Melanie hiding her white trash roots from the mayor's wily spies. But that too is cleared up rather quickly. And then, it seems that the movie will be about Melanie making nice with her soon to be mother-in-law, but again the film just keeps on switching plotlines.
This film is a run of the mill "girl rediscovers her roots" films. And by the umpteenth reprise of Skynard's famous song that lends this movie a credible title, the audience should be more than a bit chagrined that they paid $8 for a ticket to a romantic comedy that's not nearly as engaging a "Sex in the City" or as heartwarming as "Sleepless in Seattle. "
The eerily waifish Witherspoon serves up a decent performance. As always she's cute, charming and looks somewhat like a Power Puff Girl on crystal meth. Bergen, who can deliver the uptight white woman act in her sleep at this point, adds a bit of star-powered oomph to a slightly lethargic cast.
One the philosophical side, there's one thing that's slightly disturbing about the way this movie plays out. If the sex roles had been reversed here and a man behaved as obnoxiously to everyone as Melanie does, he'd be considered the biggest dog in history. But somehow it's OK for Melanie to be a completely ungrateful airhead. Somehow the fact that she's in love is supposed to ameliorate the fact that she is self-centered and has a total disregard for everyone else's time, feelings and dignity.
And the very fact that Mr. Perfect (Andrew Dempsey) gets walked all over in this film sends a disturbing message to the masculine half of those watching this film as date: Men who treat women with respect are chumps.
In the end, "Sweet Home Alabama" is just another cookie cutter romantic comedy that will be coming to a Cinemax channel near you soon. Very soon.
All Scene Stories for Thursday, November 7, 2002
