Honey, just cuz I'm lean-n-mean doesn't mean I'm stupid.
Written: Dec 09 '03 (Updated Sep 02 '08)
Product Rating:
Pros: Gives small-town America some respect.
Cons: Little chemistry between Melanie and Andrew.
The Bottom Line: Can a stereotype be treated lovingly? A movie be funny if it doesn't really make fun of anyone? While I didn't ever guffaw, this was more entertaining than I expected.
I have to disagree with several friends here. I liked Sweet Home Alabama about as much as I like any romantic comedy. It was (mostly) well-acted, (mostly) well-written, and most unusual of all, fair to its characters.
The Premise
Melanie grew up in Alabama, but escaped to live her dream as a fashion designer in New York. Now she’s engaged to Andrew Hennings, the son of money and politics. Small town girl makes good, right? The problem is she’s already married. So she rushes back to Alabama to divorce her childhood sweetheart. It’s been seven years. Facing roots she’s ashamed of isn’t easy. Her husband, Jake, isn’t either. Refusing to sign the papers, he forces her to stick around long enough to get past her snottiness and realize "you can take the girl out of the honky-tonk, but you can’t take the honky-tonk out of the girl."
The Acting
Reese Witherspoon gives Melanie spiteful arrogance without making her unpalatable. More impressively, she carries off the transition from haughtiness to re-appreciating her past. Witherspoon is about as ‘normal’ a person as any actor, and that helps her portray real people like this.
The love-interests, Josh Lucas as Jake and Patrick Dempsey as Andrew, also turn in good performances. Lucas acts easily, in a way that makes one wonder how much is acting and how much is his own personality. Dempsey is also strong, his last scene impressive considering the challenge it posed. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough chemistry between him and Witherspoon to make the triangle work as well as it could have.
Mary Kay Place and Fred Ward are authentic as Melanie’s parents, as is Jean Smart as Jake’s mother. Ethan Embry as Jake’s friend is good too, though there’s little credibility in how easily his ‘outing’ is passed over. Candice Bergen is Andrew’s mother, the mayor of NYC. Hers is the only character made fun of, though it’s with a light hand. ("There’s nothing wrong with poor people. I was elected by poor people.")
The Movie
"Honey, just cuz I talk slow doesn’t mean I’m stupid," Jake tells Melanie. And this, along with lighting striking twice in matters of love, could be taken as the movie’s theme. Melanie detests her roots, personifying the provincial New Yorker who considers the outside world a backwater. (Interestingly, Andrew’s mother is the only other New Yorker portrayed as disparaging Melanie’s roots, a fairness to New Yorkers I may not have extended.)
Melanie is transparent and the insults she heaps on her people and culture are simply mean. Her tantrum climaxes in the honky-tonk, a place differing from a New York bar only by the music, the decor, and the accents (each time the movie seems to mock the South it redeems itself by later offering a truer, more positive angle). Having exhausted her bile (and slept it off), Melanie apologizes and begins rediscovering an appreciation for her home. And for the husband she left.
The writing here is passable. Sure, while some one-liners hit the mark, others fly wide. But the story is decent, the characters real, and the obstacles to romance more substantial than comic accident. We all know the love-hate Melanie has for home. I do have mixed feelings about the conclusion, but while this movie (unlike most of its ilk) isn’t stupid, it isn’t highly intelligent either. This left some critics cold, the type who close-mindedly equate good filmmaking with edginess. Instead, this movie is good because it’s real, and fair. That’s perhaps a kind of edge the critics find too sharp to handle.
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