Sweet Home Alabama on DVD
Reese Witherspoon is marvelous as Melanie Carmichael, an up and
coming New York fashion designer whose life is turned topsy turvey when she
returns to her rural Alabama home after a seven year absence.
Shes just about to hit the big time in the fashion world, it
appears, and her life couldnt get any better - but it does. Her boyfriend
(Patrick Dempsey), who also just happens to be the son of the Big Apples
pompous and arrogant Democrat mayor (Candice Bergen), surprises her with a trip
to Tiffanys where he proposes to her and lets her pick out her own
rock.
Shes overwhelmed and pleased, and accepts, but she has a
secret she needs to take care of before she can marry the guy: shes
already married to her childhood sweetheart (Josh Lucas) back home in Alabama,
so she needs to head there quickly for a quick and quiet divorce.
So we have the beginnings of a typical Hollywood outing where the
sophisticate deigns to visit flyover country where the people are
rubes and boobs - except that this movie turns all that around in a most
refreshing manner.
Melanie, it turns out, isnt really Melanie Carmichael but
rather is (or was) Felony Melanie, a rambunctious kid everyone
remembers - not all kindly - from the swath she and her friends made through
the quiet Southern life of their formative years.
And shes in for a real surprise as her well-earned New York
snootiness blows up in her face and she discovers that, while these people may
not live in Manhattan and drive Mercedes Benzes, and while their tastes and
their needs are more simple than life would have it in the Big Apple, they
arent rubes and boobs and, in fact, have much to offer. In many ways, she
discovers, Alabama life is more real and more important than the glitter of the
great white way.
And darn it, she still has feelings for Jake - who it turns out
has also changed during the years theyve been apart.
Its all pretty predictable in the larger sense, but with
wonderful characters and a nice turnaround that portrays the rural people as
the ones with real character while the limousine liberal New Yorkers (as
personified by Bergens mayor), are hypocritical and superficial.
Well, not all the New Yorkers. Andrew, the finance, is actually a
guy with substance and would probably be a good catch for Melanie, and some of
her New York friends who come down to Alabama for her wedding to Andrew are
decent people as well.
But Alabama is sweet, and its home, and it doesnt take
Melanie long to discover that, for all its benefits, New York cant hold a
candle to Alabama, where people are real and life is worth savoring - not
wrestling to the ground as you reach for the brass ring.
We dont get to see whether or not she continues her
designing career, though it looks as if she wont - and thats a
shame because in this day and age it doesnt matter where you live any
more. Oh well.
The supporting cast, especially Dempsey and Lucas - and Mary Kay
Place and Fred Ward as Melanies parents - are excellent. In fact, other
than Bergen as the mayor (who comes off as Murphy Brown holding elected
office), this movie is full of believable and likeable characters.
The DVDs pretty good, too. It was released in anamorphic
widescreen (16x9 TV compatible), which is as it should be, and the picture
quality is for the most part very good. There are a few soft scenes, but on the
whole the pictures sharp and the colors are rich. Audio is Dolby Digital
5.1 surround and though there isnt much surround the audio quality is
also very good.
Extras include the original ending, which we preferred in some
ways (though the director explains why they dumped it and his reasons make
sense - though they also hint at pandering to the preview audience).
Theres also a selection of 8 deleted scenes introduced by director Andy
Tennant (who also provides a running commentary accompanying the movie), and
SHeDAISYs Mine All Mine music video.
What? No Sweet Home Alabama video? Zounds! The song
does figure in the movie, of course, and thats as it should be, Mr.
Young.
Sweet Home Alabama, from Touchstone Home Video
109 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital
5.1 surround
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Fred Ward, Mary
Kay Place, Jean Smart and Candice Bergen
Produced by Neil H. Moritz, Stokely Chaffin,
Written by C. Jay Cox, Directed by Andy Tennant
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