Sweet Home Alabama Review
After a string of edgy and often deliberately unsympathetic performances in such films as Freeway, American_Psycho, and Election, Reese_Witherspoon was probably as surprised as anyone that America was ready to let her become its latest sweetheart. But after the runaway success of Legally_Blonde, the budding superstar stuck to safe, fairy-tale material with this mostly winning romantic comedy. Populated by lovable eccentrics and plain but good folks, Sweet Home Alabama's Pigeon Creek is indistinguishable from any number of other sanitized, fictional Southern towns. But Witherspoon, with her kewpie countenance and iron spine, differs just enough from the conventional leading lady to remove the aftertaste from the saccharine material. Taking her cues from the conniving Julia_Roberts school of heroines rather than the blander Meg_Ryan variety, she drinks, cusses, and condescends her way to a perverse likability. The more she resembles a Jerry_Springer guest, the more the audience cheers her on. The film's reassuring "I'm okay, you're okay" geographic relativism may not play well to self-satisfied Manhattanites, but it sure goes down well everywhere else. Heartthrobs Ethan_Embry, Patrick_Dempsey, and Joshua_Lucas provide the requisite broad-based sex appeal, while everyone from Candice_Bergen and Jean_Smart to Mary_Kay_Place supplies laughs and lovable stereotypes. Jewel chimes in with the inevitable Lynyrd_Skynyrd cover, and boom -- something safe for everyone, like all the best blockbusters. Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
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