"Sweet Home Alabama" conceived as a simple "star vehicle" for Reese Witherspoon is advertised as a "romantic comedy". It's is quite formulaic, and surely no one entering the theater (or renting the video or DVD)has any doubt as to with whom Reese's Melanie Charmichael (Smooter) will end up with when the closing credits start to roll.
Herein lies the basic fault, however, with this interpretation of a tried and true plotline: by the end of the film it seems apparent that both of the two men in Melanie's life would be far better off without her. After accepting a proposal of marriage by the handsome and ambitious son of the May of New York City, Melanie proceeds back home to Alabama to finalize her divorce from her high school (and childhood) sweetheart, whom she abandoned seven years before, but has refused to sign the divorce papers. Upon returning to her modest roots (at variance with the more gentile upbringing she has led her New York friends and followers to believe) she insults her parents and old friends, becomes drunk (and mean) and vomits into her former husband's truck; let the hilarity ensue! In the meantime, in the part of the movie where the new fiancee is supposed to be revealed as boorish, vain and superficial, quite the opposite occurs, and the viewer is left with a very sympathetic view of the upperclass New York society man, who truly loves Melanie, and forgives her untruthfulness. Melanie's former husband, having set out to win Melanie back by making a success of himself in the intervening years discovers her to be the shallow superficial snob of the movie. Why then, would he want her back? Why did Melanie make up the story of a plantation upbringing anyway? She's just a conniving, lying, scheming, mean drunk.Where is the romance? Where is the comedy? Certainly not in Alabama.
Herein lies the basic fault, however, with this interpretation of a tried and true plotline: by the end of the film it seems apparent that both of the two men in Melanie's life would be far better off without her. After accepting a proposal of marriage by the handsome and ambitious son of the May of New York City, Melanie proceeds back home to Alabama to finalize her divorce from her high school (and childhood) sweetheart, whom she abandoned seven years before, but has refused to sign the divorce papers. Upon returning to her modest roots (at variance with the more gentile upbringing she has led her New York friends and followers to believe) she insults her parents and old friends, becomes drunk (and mean) and vomits into her former husband's truck; let the hilarity ensue! In the meantime, in the part of the movie where the new fiancee is supposed to be revealed as boorish, vain and superficial, quite the opposite occurs, and the viewer is left with a very sympathetic view of the upperclass New York society man, who truly loves Melanie, and forgives her untruthfulness. Melanie's former husband, having set out to win Melanie back by making a success of himself in the intervening years discovers her to be the shallow superficial snob of the movie. Why then, would he want her back? Why did Melanie make up the story of a plantation upbringing anyway? She's just a conniving, lying, scheming, mean drunk.Where is the romance? Where is the comedy? Certainly not in Alabama.