Sweet Home Alabama

Rating:
Summary: City Slicker - Country Spitfire
Review: "Sweet Home Alabama" is one of those stories that just is not going to work out after the closing credits, but you can easily suspend belief for a couple of hours. Little Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) has New York at her feet as This Year's Now fashion designer and the maraschino cherry atop the sundae is a proposal from the suave son (Patrick Dempsey) of the Mayor of New York City (Candice Bergen). Before the cup can runneth over, Melanie must clear up some loose ends down home in Alabama, namely getting a divorce from her good ole boy husband (Josh Lucas) who she married as a teenager. Melanie blows into Sweet Home after seven years and is going to get the matter taken care of in a day or so, and then jet back to the City.

I'd like to respectfully disagree that Miss Witherspoon "carries" the picture. There is something not entirely charming about a spoiled brat who expects to get the best out any world she happens to occupy. We needed to see a little more of the charmer and less of the vixen to have a happy ride through the movie. Mary Kay Place, as Melanie's mom, gives an excellent supporting performance of surprising depth given the light content of the script. Josh Lucas, as Jake is disarming, funny and appealing. So much so, I had a hard time understanding why he was so determined to hang on to Melanie. A very nice and perceptive performance by Lurlynn (Melanie Lynsky) who is the old girl friend who stayed home and raised babies, and shows more maturity in a glance than RW displays in the whole movie. A very special mention to Mary Lynn Rajskub (Dorothea) in the best comedic bit in the movie as the bank teller who had lost 100 lbs. and was ready to compete!

There were many opportunities to sharpen up and improve the movie. I would have liked to see an edgier, super chic New Yorker group for contrast, particularly in the fashion department. Melanie abandoned every grain of sense she ever possessed about fashion when she hit Alabama. Cowboy boots with Laura Ashley style sun dresses? She spent most of the time with a coiffure that made her look like Meg Ryan on a bad hair day. Hey, the Deep South is a place where Big Hair is not only celebrated, but embraced. We got a taste of what a real southern hoe down can be like, but it was cut short. We saw some beautiful Alabama scenery, but all in quick shots. We needed to see the beauty and draw of the small town south, so we could better to relate to Melanie's predicament of being drawn in two directions.

"Sweet Home in Alabama" is a pleasant movie, not precisely a chick flick, and more than just a focus for Reese Witherspoon's talents. Rating B-

Rating:
Summary: Cutest Movie I have seen in awhile
Review: Now I know some of you might be saying CHEESY or DUMB, but I think that this movie is a mega-cute Reese movie almost rivaling Legally Blond. WIth the girl who has to figure out who she is before she can figure out which guy, this makes for a perfect date or even a girls night out! Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Southern Reese is great!
Review: I saw Legally Blonde and loved it so I had to see this. I thought it was absolutly great! Reese Witherspoon plays a wondaful sothern gal. Sshe starts out a lil' yankee and then you find her life as a lil' gal in the south. A great movie about a southern gal who has only just found it in her. If you are just a big Reese Witherspoon fan, like me, you are gonna luv Sweet Home Alabama!

Rating:
Summary: Reese saves this run-of-the-mill romantic comedy
Review: If you expect anything more from Sweet Home Alabama then a generic chick flick, you will be disappointed. It doesn't offer anything new. But what it does offer is two things:

One - It is a well made click flick. The jokes mostly work, the acting is well done, and the production values are high. It is quickly forgettable just moments after leaving the theater, but it's enjoyable during the ride of the picture itself.

Two - Reese Witherspoon. She is one of the best young actresses in the business today and she manages to turn this three star movie into four just by sharing her graceful presence. There is just some aura around her that keeps you interested in a film, even when it's not all that great. And though this one doesn't come close to her movie Election, where she plays a vindictive high school senior running for class president, it still carries the enthusiasm she brings into her roles. And in an age of film where most beautiful people (both men and women) are usually without talent, it's great to see a woman who has both.

There isn't much else to say about this motion picture. It's completely predictable, but does it's job as a chick flick, bringing in a little more energy then most of the slop out there, and that's it. Check it out for Reese.

Rating:
Summary: If Life were just like the Movies
Review: This was said in 1945, before we all were looking for films that were real life - we had them - this film is great this is what movies were ment to do Take you away from that powerful life you live, children to raise, people to understand == and if we would just step back a few feet don't we all get to serious about our life
This film let us laugh at our selves go for the human spirit and lets us know in case we forgot how wonder LOVE really is Yes I enjoyed this film along with another which the critics dont understand but we do who are in touch with life

Rating:
Summary: great movie but in real life could this happen?
Review: the movie was a classic movie of love and romance. that shares the values of many people. i personally loved the movie and thought it was terrific and can't wait till it comes out on movie but the real question is could this really happen? could a small, little, alabama town really hold all this? could a town have this kind of enchanting love story. when you watch this i ask you to ask yourself if it could really happen. thanx.

Rating:
Summary: Sweeter then sugar
Review: come of people, you have to be either too uptight or too much of a yankee to hate this movie. Sure, it's no future oscar nominee, but it's fun and carefree. Some jokes might not be fully understood by those not familiar with the south and it does stereotype southeners, but go see this movie, it's just plain "cute"

Rating:
Summary: A Waste of Money
Review: This is the worst movie I've seen in a long time. The plot
(country girl goes to city, gets famous, comes home to find that happiness is right there in the first place) has rust and mold on it, it's so old. The heroine is a liar and a cheat, yet once again, everything turns out all right. I usually like Witherspoon, but the close-ups of her cute "oh don't blame me, I'm just a mixed up little girl" face make one weary.

And this woman is supposed to have become a top designer? Please! Her clothes are just awful!

I can't imagine who conceived this mess, or why, and how anybody could involve themselves in making it, but most of all, what has happened to the viewing public that they seem to like it? Believe me, if you have a choice between seeing this and shoveling snow, grab the snow shovel!

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Home Alabama
Review: A very good family movie that I really enjoyed. I felt that in addition to Reese which did and excellent job, the supporting cast did everything right. I especially liked Clinton's scenes although I have not seen him in other movies yet. The theather was full of teenage girls because of Reese, I suppose, and there were roars of laughter and applause in many of the different scenes. A truly entertaining event for me and my family and a good family movie.

Rating:
Summary: You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country But....
Review: After seeing Reese Witherspoon in the movie "Legally Blonde" I realized that she had finally arrived as an actor. In "Sweet Home Alabama" (movie title inspired by the song)Reese plays the part of a New York fashion designer who is engaged to the son of the Mayor. The problem is that she is still married to her childhood sweetheart (since age 10 mind you) back home in Pigeon Creek, Alabama. Just down the road a piece from Hicksville.

Reese goes home, now because she is a sucessful NY fashion designer she is a much much better person than any of the corn feed folk from down Alabama way, to secure her estranged husband's signature on the divorce decree. She winds up discovering that "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl."

"Sweet Home Alabama" is a funny movie and yet it is also a moralistic story. And the dialoge was great. I would recommend this one for the entire family. (No sex, violence, or nudity.) Cammy Diaz A @ L