| Sweet Home Alabama | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Andy Tennant |
| Produced by | David Brown Michael Tolkin Neal H. Moritz |
| Written by | Screenplay C. Jay Cox Story Douglas J. Eboch |
| Starring | Reese Witherspoon Josh Lucas Patrick Dempsey Candice Bergen Mary Kay Place Fred Ward Ethan Embry Melanie Lynskey Mary Lynn Rajskub Jean Smart Dakota Fanning |
| Studio | Original Film Type A Films |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 27, 2002 |
| Running time | 109 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $38 million |
| Box office | $180,622,424 |
Sweet Home Alabama is a 2002 American romantic comedy film directed by Andy Tennant and stars Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, and Patrick Dempsey. The film was released on September 27, 2002.
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The film opens on an Alabama beach with two children chasing each other: Melanie Smooter and Jake Perry. The two discuss their future together. They kiss, and Jake says they will be married one day. The scene then moves to the present day. Melanie (Reese Witherspoon) has changed her last name to Carmichael and is now a successful fashion designer in New York City. After becoming engaged to Andrew (Patrick Dempsey), the mayor's son, Melanie announces that she has to go back home alone to Alabama to tell her parents. She has not told Andrew that she is married to Jake (Josh Lucas).
Upon arrival in Alabama, Melanie demands a divorce and an explanation why Jake has for the last seven years returned the divorce papers unsigned. Jake refuses to sign the papers. Melanie retaliates by emptying out their joint checking account. After following Jake to a local bar, Melanie gets drunk and embarrasses herself in front of her friends confessing that she had previously been pregnant with Jake's baby and revealing that a mutual friend, Bobby Ray, is gay. Jake becomes angry with her and takes her home. When she wakes up the next morning, the divorce papers are lying on her bed signed by Jake.
Soon after, Melanie visits the Carmichael Plantation and tries to apologize to Bobby Ray. Though Bobby Ray accepts the apology, he explicitly tells Melanie that Jake is not the only person she left behind, expressing the sadness that all her friends have felt after she fled to New York City years ago. Just as Melanie is leaving the plantation, she finds herself cornered by a pushy reporter who claims to be from the New York Post (though in reality he is the assistant of Andrew's mother) and asks for a tour of the beautiful plantation where Melanie supposedly grew up. Desperately, Melanie tries to sneak back into the mansion, but once Bobby Ray realizes what is happening, he pretends to be Melanie's cousin and saves her from embarrassment. That afternoon, Melanie realizes that her friends are kind, caring individuals who never stopped loving her.
Melanie learns from a friend that Jake had once gone to New York City to try to find her because he still loved her. That night, Melanie goes to the cemetery to tell her old dog good bye. Jake shows up and they talk about why the marriage did not work. Jake wishes Melanie a good life with Andrew, but Melanie says she cannot do it and kisses him. Jake pushes her away, however, and tells her to go home.
Andrew arrives in town, looking for Melanie at the Carmichael plantation where Melanie had told him she grew up. Jake meets him and takes him to the field of a Civil War reenactment, where Melanie is saying goodbye to her father. Jake tells Andrew that they are in love with two very different people. Andrew rebuffs Melanie and leaves.
Melanie returns to her parents' house, where her father walks in with Andrew. Andrew tells her that he does not care about the past and still wants to marry her. They decide to have the wedding in Alabama, and Andrew's mother comes down from New York. Once Melanie's friends from New York arrive, they discover that Jake has become a very successful glassblower and has his own company. Melanie is surprised to see what Jake has made out of himself and it is suddenly clear that he did it all to win her back.
On her wedding day, as she is walking down the aisle, her lawyer interrupts the ceremony and explains that the divorce is still not final because Melanie did not sign the divorce papers. Melanie explains to Andrew that she cannot marry him because she still loves Jake. Andrew is gracious, but his mother verbally attacks Melanie and the town. When she insults Melanie's mother, Melanie punches her.
Melanie finds Jake on the same beach as in the film's opening. Melanie tells him that the two are still married and she wants to be with him. As Jake and Melanie kiss, Wade, the town sheriff, interrupts them, explaining that Melanie is wanted because "she ran out on a perfectly good cake." Wade takes the pair back to Jake's mother's bar, where all of their friends and family are waiting. During the end credits, we see that the couple is living happily and they have a daughter.
Although centered in the fictionalized town of Pigeon Creek, near a fictional version of Greenville, Alabama, the film was mostly shot in Georgia. The Carmichael plantation which Melanie tells the reporter is her childhood home is the Oak Hill Berry Museum. Oak Hill is a historic landmark in Georgia, and is on the Berry College campus in Mount Berry, Georgia.
The streets and storefronts of Crawfordville, Georgia, were used as the backdrop for the Catfish Festival and other downtown scenes. The coon dog cemetery was on Moore Street in Crawfordville and the bar was located at Heavy's Bar-B-Que near the town.
Glass that forms when lightning hits sand, as in the movie, is called fulgurite.
The glassblowing shop that belongs to Jake in the film was actually an old mill named Starr's Mill in Fayette County, Georgia. When Jake lands his plane on the lake it was actually Wynn's Pond in Sharpsburg, Georgia.
The historic homes Melanie passes by as she enters Pigeon Creek were shot in Eufaula, Alabama.
The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. On the film's Rotten Tomatoes listing, 37% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 154 reviews.[1] Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", the film has a rating of 39%.[2] Roger Ebert at the Chicago Sun Times awarded it 3 out of 4 stars, commenting, "It is a fantasy, a sweet, light-hearted fairy tale with Reese Witherspoon at its center. She is as lovable as Doris Day would have been in this role... So I enjoyed Witherspoon and the local color, but I am so very tired of the underlying premise." [3]
Generating the biggest opening of September, the film grossed over $35 million in its first weekend. By the end of its run in the U.S., Sweet Home Alabama grossed over $130 million and another $53,399,006 internationally.[4]
The film also won the following awards:
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