Sweet Home Alabama (Reese Witherspoon)

(Amazon UK link)

Although we have had the film ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on our shelves for many years, I had not watched it until we chose it as a light evening’s viewing last night. I had no idea what it was about, but the blurb on the back suggested a light, feel-good kind of story.

Reese Witherspoon stars as Amanda, a talented and ambitious young woman who works in New York as a clothes designer. She is in a relationship with a wealthy businessman called Andrew (Patrick Dempsey) and somewhat startled when he asks her to marry him. His mother Kate (Candice Bergan) is the Mayor, and rather unimpressed that he’s marrying someone she doesn’t approve of.

Amanda, as we quickly learn, is not exactly who she claims to be. There was a brief prologue showing her as a child with her best friend Jake, but it’s not until she returns to Alabama, purportedly to tell her parents face-to-face that she is engaged, that we learn exactly what happened with Jake, and what kind of relationship she has with him now.

There’s not much more I can say about the plot without giving spoilers; suffice it to say it’s really a relationship-based film, contrasting Amanda’s high-powered life in New York with her very different background, growing up in a loving but low-income family whom she hasn’t seen in seven years.

I expect the scenes in the Alabama bars and homes were somewhat caricatured, showing lots of drinking, smoking, playing pool and dancing with drawling farmers and glamorous but unintelligent women. But Amanda’s gradual realisation about what really mattered to her was very well done. Her old friends and acquaintances greet her warmly enough but see her as stuck-up and condescending. As she begins to see the value in her former way of life, her accent becomes more Southern too.

The adult Jake (Josh Lucas) is a likeable person, but then so are most of the cast; there are no ‘bad’ guys, and the conflict is in Amanda’s two selves, as she tries to reconcile them while continuing to tell lies so that her friends in New York don’t realise who she is.

I didn’t know how the film was going to end; I thought it was going one way, then it looked as though I was wrong. Inevitably one of the main characters was going to be disappointed, and I thought it very well done. Of course it’s not a story with much depth; it’s a rom-com that’s above average due to the quality of the acting. We enjoyed it, and will no doubt watch it again in another five or six years.

The DVD back said it contained deleted scenes and other extras, but in fact the only extra we could find was a brief explanation about an alternative ending that was filmed but not used. There were also some trailers for other films.

Recommended if you like lively light romantic films that don’t require much thought. There were a few amusing moments that made us smile, but it wasn’t a comedy as such. The rating is 12A in the UK (PG-13 in the US) which I suppose is about right; there’s no nudity or anything overtly sexual, and only fairly mild bad language. But the storyline is unlikely to be of any interest to children or younger teens.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews