By Kristin Sommers (November 5, 2002)
Lasso Online Rating:

Sweet Home Alabama, starring Reese Witherspoon and directed by Andrew Tennant, is a feel-good romantic comedy and a lighthearted escape from the troubles we face today.

Witherspoon plays emerging New York City fashion designer Melanie Carmichael, a Southern transplant with a past. Melanie manages to conceal the truth from her longtime Yankee boyfriend, Andrew Hennings, who is played by Patrick Dempsey. When Melanie gets engaged to Hennings, though, the secret becomes harder to keep, especially since his mother, New York mayor and socialite Kate Hennings (Candace Bergen), is determined to find something wrong with her future daughter-in-law.
 

Sweet Home Alabama is rated PG-13, and is now showing in local theaters.

Before she can marry the man of her dreams, however, Melanie first has to divorce her Southern childhood sweetheart, Jake (Josh Lucas). Determined to put her past behind her once and for all, Melanie returns home to Alabama to finally get her husband's signature on the divorce papers - and get out as fast as she can. But when she returns home, Melanie is welcomed back into her family and her old crowd of friends, among them supporting actors Ethan Embry and Melanie Lynskey. During her time back home, Melanie even begins to see the good in her soon to be ex-husband Jake, but they fight and she forges ahead with her plans to marry Hennings. The movie ends with Melanie's wedding. I won't say who she ends up with - her rich boyfriend or her hometown husband - but I think you, and anyone else who has ever seen a romantic comedy, can figure it out.

In all, Sweet Home Alabama is a cute and fun movie. Even if it doesn't win any Oscars, it still serves as a nice, if only temporary, break from reality. Witherspoon manages to play a convincing down-home country gal in the big city, and is greatly assisted by the supporting cast of Embry, Dempsey, Lucas, and Smart. Although the movie is predictable, it has its moments of humor and drama, and I recommend it highly to anyone looking for a nice, simple night out at the movies.