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Sometimes adorable really is enough, especially if it comes with smarts, heart and humor. Take Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama. The movie is a comic romance that would have to beef up to cut it as fluff. But watch Witherspoon dig into the role of Melanie Smooter, a steel magnolia who skips out on her white-trash roots in Alabama -- that includes her husband, Jake (Josh Lucas) -- and hits it big in the Big Apple by reinventing herself as fashionista Melanie Carmichael.
This babe dresses herself for success. She even snags a marriage proposal -- at Tiffany's, yet! -- from Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), a bachelor hottie whose disapproving mom, Kate (Candice Bergen is a hoot and a half), happens to be -- won't Michael Bloomberg be surprised -- the mayor of New York. Andrew doesn't know that Melanie has a husband back in Alabama who never signed the divorce papers. Also stashed away are her cracker parents, Earl (Fred Ward) and Pearl (Mary Kay Place).
And so Melanie sneaks home, the tabloid press on her tail (the New York Post would have broken this story in five minutes), to confront her past and ultimately her own conscience. If you don't see where this is going, you've never seen a movie. Credit director Andy Tennant, working from the script by C. Jay Cox, for approaching each cliche with a sense of real discovery. Tennant, whose career tends to swing from bad (Fools Rush In) to better (Ever After) to bad again (Anna and the King), has a saving grace: He is very good with actors. Lucas and Dempsey exude genuine charm. Jean Smart, as Jake's mom, and Ethan Embry, as a gay friend of Melanie's, also register deftly in roles that could have easily slid into gross caricature.
Still, there'd be no movie without Witherspoon (she's descended from John Witherspoon, who signed the Declaration of Independence, in case you're wondering about her mile-long moniker). It's no surprise the public wants to know about this Nashville-bred actress: her marriage to Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Phillippe, her career of artistic (Election) and commercial (Legally Blonde) feats and her rep as one tough cookie.
It's the tough side of Witherspoon that grounds her performances. She's unafraid to squint and screw up her pretty face until she resembles a pissed-off Pekingese. Her lack of vanity helps put the crunch in her comedy. As Melanie, she's selfish and often cruel. Let the going get soppy; she still keeps it real. She even had me in that shameless moment when Melanie visits the grave of the dog she left behind and whimpers, "You must have thought you did something wrong."
It takes a skilled actress to pull that off (don't let Madonna try it). Witherspoon has the class, the sass and the full-out talent to sustain a major career. Who else could turn the wimpy Sweet Home Alabama into a date-movie winner? She's one of that select group who is worth watching in anything. Even in this less-than-magic kingdom, Reese rules.
Reese's Best Pieces
Legally Blonde (2001)
"I'm Elle Woods, and this is my dog Bruiser Woods." Playing a dumb-as-a-fox Harvard student, Reese turned a cheapie farce into comic gold. Her paycheck has since climbed to $15 million.
Election (1999)
Oscar stupidly snubbed the Reese peak to date as high school political killer Tracy Flick.
Freeway (1996)
A never-sexier Reese (and that includes Cruel Intentions in 1999) twists Little Red Riding Hood into Lolita. Rent it now.
The Man in the Moon (1991)
As a girl, 14, in love with an older boy, Reese made a big-screen debut that said "born actress."
PETER TRAVERS
(October 17, 2002)
Sometimes what youre looking for is right where you left it
Reese Witherspoon stars as Melanie Carmichael, an up-and-coming New York fashion designer. Beautiful and successful, it appears she has everything. Even her upcoming wedding to the perfectly handsome and charming Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), son of city mayor Kate Hennings (Candice Bergen), is a fairy tale come true. However, Melanie has a few skeletons in the closet of her past that she will have to deal with before she is free to marry. She has concealed her poor Southern background from her big-city friends, and worse – her poor redneck husband too. Jake Perry (Josh Lucas) was her high-school sweetheart whom she married when she was young, but she left their tiny Alabama town years earlier to seek her fortune leaving him behind.
Now Melanie has to return to her roots in order to convince him to give her the divorce she seeks – although they haven't seen each other for years, he has always refused to sign the papers. The more time she spends at home, the more she realises that she had good times there, and the more she starts to see her friends and family in a new light. Jake has never stopped loving her, and it is clear that she still feels something for him too, but the situation becomes even more complicated when Andrew arrives from the city for a surprise visit and finds out the truth. Melanie will have to decide is she's really a big city businesswoman or an old-fashioned Southern girl.
This is a well-executed romantic comedy with some charm, although it really contains nothing new – it is clear what Melanie is going to do from the moment her situation becomes clear. Indeed, it is hard to see why she left Jake in the first place, since he has plenty of fine qualities of his own. The film's Southern feel does add to its charm, however, with small town life touchingly recreated and accents being accurate without being overdone. Never far from their Confederate roots, the people who live there come across as authentic and down-to-earth. 'Sweet Home Alabama' has some merit, less in the story it seeks to tell than in the way it chooses to tell it. The soundtrack also includes the song 'Falling Down' by popular teen singer Avril Lavigne.
It's Got: A knack for taking a swipe at those who espouse democratic values while retaining their conservative attitudes.
It Needs: That something unusual to make it stand out from others of its ilk.
DVD Extras A reasonable collection of extras for a single-disc release, which includes a much-appreciated directors commentary. Extras: Directors commentary, Deleted scenes, Alternate ending. Music Video: Mine All Mine by SheDaisy. DVD Extras Rating: 5/10
Alternatives:
Just Married, Maid in Manhattan., Two Weeks Notice
Summary
Pleasant romantic comedy that is well executed but provides little that is unexpected.
06:25PM TH
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