Melanie (Witherspoon): What are you doing here?
Andrew (Dempsey): Getting my woman, that is if you still want me.
Teenage Girl in the Audience: Oh my god!
Audience: (Laughs their wits out).
Sweet Home
Alabama works.
After the terrible Swimfan, I was really searching
for some good material that still qualified as a teen-flick, and I
found it. With its light jokes that dish out an amusing experience
and widely appealing personality; this is a keeper. Today’s
teenage genre is so one dimensional, and delivers what it promises
every time; this film is surprisingly different. It is the most
unique comedy since Witherspoon’s last effort, Legally
Blonde.
The storyline is
recycled, but works with the actors different strong points well.
As the story goes, Melanie, a southern scrap turned
New York City fashion designer
is proposed to by the senator of
New York’s son. Instead of
picking her out a ring himself, he proposes inside of Tiffany’s
and lets her choose her own. She is ready to get married right
away; the only trouble is that she has some unfinished business
that needs tending to before the wedding back in her home state,
Alabama. As the plot moves
forward, we find that she never officially divorced her previous
marriage that still lives in her home town. She sent him divorce
papers several times, but he always would send them back without a
signature. She must march down south herself and ask him in
person! She confronts him angrily when she gets to his house, but
he still won’t sign. She is firm and rigid in getting him to do
so, but after spending a while in her old town she becomes more in
touch with her roots, and the love that once lived with her old
relationship starts to fly once again. This new guy isn’t going to
be as easy to marry as she thought…
With the information
the trailer shows, and that of which I have just given you; the
story must sound as predictable as anything ever made before in
history. I had the same thoughts before I saw the movie too, but I
was wrong. The movie doesn’t sound very deep, but the controversy
that Witherspoon’s character’s emotions go through is actually a
tremendously profound looking struggle when it is put on to film.
At times, the light jokes will just fade away and you will even
start to take the material seriously due to her extreme
versatility.
Mrs. Witherspoon is
about the most marketable actress around at the time. She can put
out any material and still be liked. She is being paid fifteen
million dollars to do a sequel to Legally Blonde,
entitled Red, White, and Blonde, where the infamous
Elle Woods continues her study of law and defends some of the
nations biggest convicts. Everything puts out in this flick is
incredibly silly, but it works tremendously. Professional
box-office predictors are saying that the movie will make thirty
million dollars in its first week; that’s a hell of a lot of money
for a post-summer release.
Sweet Home
Alabama
breezes through a simple, but flawless execution of its light,
but heartfelt material. Reese Witherspoon is great as the
comically mixed-up Melanie. This is one movie that really works:
substance wise and finance wise. If you’re looking for something
light and easy going that can be enjoyed by everyone;
Sweet Home
Alabama is
definitely the right pick. I deem it worthy of 3 ½ out of 4
buckets.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews