After
graduating from high school in Alabama, Melanie Carmichael
(played by Reese Witherspoon) went to New York "to make
something of her life." We see the result, seven years
later, in Sweet Home Alabama, directed
by Andy Tennant. She is a successful fashion designer who
has dazzled Andrew Hennings (played by Patrick Dempsey), the
son of New York City Mayor Kate Hennings (played by Candice
Bergen), into proposing one late night at Tiffany's. There
is a problem, however. Melanie married her high school sweetheart
Jake (played by Josh Lucas) back in Pigeon Creek, Alabama.
Melanie, thus, must return home to get Jake to sign divorce
papers. She rushes home ahead of news stories about her engagement,
but Jake is in no mood to sign when she bursts into his house,
talks like a New Yorker rather than a Southerner, and presumes
to order him around. Melanie, in short, has to stick around
until she can get what she wants; meanwhile, she reintegrates
herself into the community and discovers that the stereotypical
denizens of Pigeon Creek are quite delightful, including her
naughty husband. Inevitably, Andrew and Mayor Kate go to Pigeon
Creek to find out what is keeping her so long. Melanie, who
is caught between two men, inevitably decides on the man whom
filmviewers will most expect. The entire story would be better
as a musical, however, so that filmviewers will not be awkward
laughing alone at all the silly punchlines. MH
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