But it still has its effectively goofy comic moments, especially when Melanie and Jake do battle. Jay Cox, has the ingredients for a classic screwball comedy, the movie is in such a rush to entertain that it barely connects the dots of its story. If ''Sweet Home Alabama,'' directed by Andy Tennant from a screenplay by C. Later, when her New York friends begin appearing in Pigeon Creek, she has some fancy footwork to do. Melanie's background isn't exactly the aristocratic plantation life she has described to Andrew and to the fashion press. She hopes to solve that little problem with a quick, furtive jaunt to her hometown where she plans to present him with papers to sign that will instantly dissolve their union. Back in Pigeon Creek all those years ago, she married Jake and is still legally bound to him, since he refused to divorce her. Before the lovers can seal their vows, however, Melanie has to take care of some urgent unfinished business.
In the bejeweled glow of Tiffany's, Melanie blushingly accepts Andrew's proposal. The second time, it turns the sand on which they are standing into a crystalline natural sculpture that they take home as a sentimental keepsake.īut that was back in the dark ages. The opening scene of ''Sweet Home Alabama'' shows Melanie and Jake as children swearing their love in a raging (and absurdly fake-looking) thunderstorm during which lightning strikes twice in the same place. That question brings to mind a possibly apocryphal story from a number of years back about a survey in which women were asked to choose between a suave, politically correct Alan Alda, who was famously sensitive to feminist issues, or the rougher-looking, more overtly sexy Kris Kristofferson. (They're Democrats, by the way.) She has the added luxury of having to choose between two dreamboats, both equally besotted with her. Witherspoon's character to be heaped with roses and diamonds by her beau, who also happens to be the son of the mayor of New York (Candice Bergen).
Of course, contemporary excess being as excessive as it is these days, it's not enough for Ms. As Melanie catches her breath, Andrew utters those three magic words: ''Take your pick.'' The lights flick on, and what do you know? We're at Tiffany's! Beaming from behind their counters, as Andrew kneels and asks Melanie to marry him, the staff begins stacking up baubles of every shape and size.
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Her character, Melanie Carmichael, a rising New York fashion designer, arrives home one evening to find her apartment flooded with roses sent by her rich, handsome boyfriend Andrew (Patrick Dempsey).Ī couple of scenes later, Andrew's driver chauffeurs Melanie to a strange dark place where a heady surprise awaits. Witherspoon's plucky effervescence, the goodies that arrive are the sorts of rewards a screen Cinderella usually reaps just before the final credits. In the opening scenes of ''Sweet Home Alabama,'' a ball of fluff whose charm stems largely from Ms. Every physical twitch signals an unflappable determination to conquer whatever challenge presents itself. The tirelessly chipper star, exuding the confidence of a miniature general who has never lost a battle, leads with her chin in a way that recalls the younger Sally Field. That smile isn't just any old beauty-pageant grimace. When Reese Witherspoon flashes her thousand-watt smile, she projects a fundamental niceness that makes it impossible to begrudge her all the goodies that flutter into her lap like candy sequins raining down from Barbie Doll heaven.