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Melanie finds Jake at the beach planting lightning rods in the sand during a rainstorm to create more glass sculptures. She tells him they are still married, they return to what would have been Melanie and Andrew's reception, and finally, have their first dance as husband and wife. Oh well, she wants to marry her city love, Andrew Hennings. I'm no historian on the subject of the American Civil War, but, in spite of its flaws, I surrender to 'Sweet Home Alabama'because of the charm of Reese Witherspoon.
The reaction of Melanie's mother at the supposed death of her daughter apparently upset the test audiences so much, that the production crew reshot the whole reception scene, minus the practical joke. I loved this film showing the cultural differences between New Yorkers Patrick Dempsey and his mayor mother Candice Bergen as opposed to southerners Reese Witherspoon and her estranged husband Josh Lucas. Of course, this means that she must go back to the small town where she was raised to demand a divorce from Jake - seven years after walking out on him. The concept and plot is very smart, when the tone is told with humour even in situations that are serious. In fact, if the movie hadn't humor, it had been falling apart.
Box office performance
As Melanie, however, she comes across as too self-absorbed to be likable, and there's a scene in which she's had a bit too much to drink that, as they say, shows her (Melanie's) true colors. She has too much of an edge to evoke any empathy, and overall, her performance isn't that convincing. She gets the `hard' side of Melanie right, but when she goes for `soft' it translates to pretentious and lacks the realism that would make it believable.
I suppose you'll like it if it means something to you, so if you've got issues with your past and you like happy endings, give this film a shot. There's a bit of stereotyping in the film though, but they're presented humorously, so I didn't really mind. Besides, they aren't very damaging stereotypes , nor very annoying ones. "Sweet Home Alabama" conceived as a simple "star vehicle" for Reese Witherspoon is advertised as a "romantic comedy". It's is quite formulaic, and surely no one entering the theater has any doubt as to with whom Reese's Melanie Charmichael will end up with when the closing credits start to roll.
Other Filming Locations to Visit
The small town of Crawfordville, with a population under 1,000, portrayed Melanie's hometown in the film with a number of local businesses serving as the backdrop. The Taliaferro County Courthouse, built in the High Victorian style, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see a number of filming locations from "Sweet Home Alabama" and others around town. A reshoot was done where after the kiss on the beach, Sheriff Wade tracks them down and brings them back to the bar where the friends and family scramble to make up a wedding reception.
It is said that she was alone in the middle of the ocean, and sometimes would cry, the result being the glass "Mermaid tears" that sometimes wash up on beaches everywhere. This real-life Crawfordville restaurant was used as Stella's bar in the film and even has the sign they used. Don't let the rustic appearance of Heavy's Barbeque throw you off. Mounted animal heads and antiques cover the dining room walls. Locals and travelers stop here for Brunswick stew, pecan pie and barbecue with white bread. A mid-credits sequence shows that they have a baby daughter, Melanie continues to thrive as a designer, and Jake opens a "Deep South Glass" franchise in New York.
Crazy Credits
Melanie realizes Jake is the artist and that he owns the resort. Melanie visits Jake, who has repeatedly refused to sign divorce papers over the years since she left for New York. After he orders her out of his house, Melanie empties Jake's checking account, hoping to spur him into ending the marriage. Angry, Jake leaves to meet some friends at a local bar without signing the papers. Melanie follows and gets drunk, insults her old school friends, and outs her longtime friend, Bobby Ray. Jake scolds her and takes her home, preventing her from driving drunk, and Melanie wakes to find the signed divorce papers on her bed.
In retrospect, Melanie is rather unattractive and unappealing, which makes this film a hard sell. As for the Newman/Woodward fantasy, as an audience we could only be so lucky. So the girl just dumped her fiancee like that and ran to another guy on the wedding day? Not forget to mention, after all the things her fiancee has done for her and all the happiness he has brought to her life, she just DUMPED him like a garbage and punched his mother? I DON"T BELIEVE IT. This is a very cute movie, but overall, I didn't enjoy it very much. Director Andy Tennant also likes to deal with some classic historical and societal conflicts in this movie, such as the North versus the South.
The Cold Case Kidnapping and Murder of Dana Bradley - True Crime
After that, Melanie runs to find her first, true love, they kiss under the rain and live happily ever after. The supporting cast includes Fred Ward , Mary Kay Place , Jean Smart , Ethan Embry and Melanie Lynskey . With a different cast, director and screenplay, `Sweet Home Alabama' may have had a chance; but this bunch checked any pizzazz and credibility at the door on the way in, and the result is a film that is flat and tedious. This one seemingly had promise, but the filmmakers simply failed to deliver. And what in the world is going on with Candice Bergen? Is she destined to play a sarcastic and jaded or disturbed (Kathy Morningside, `Miss Congeniality') version of Murphy Brown for the rest of her career?
The writing is smart and funny, the directing fits the comedic mood of the story, and the acting is just right. Although it is a quite different film from "Legally Blonde" and "Election", I enjoyed it just as much, and will enjoy it upon repeat viewings. The streets and storefronts of Crawfordville, Georgia, were used as the backdrop for the Catfish Festival and other downtown scenes.
However exceptions are made when certain Siesta Key functions are ready to come. The sand effectively "melts", , and the grains are then fused together, creating a piece of "Fulgurite" that is sometimes hollow, and sometimes in a tubular shape. Another name for "Fulgurite" is fossilized lightning. THAT was merely a figment of the imagination created by "Hollywood." Like in the finished movie, in the original ending, Melanie leaves her fiancé at their wedding when she discovers she hasn't signed the documents to divorce Jake.
The stunning grounds were one of the three display gardens in the state. The Judge—a 2014 film with a similar plot of a protagonist with a successful big city career drawn back to an old hometown. Although centered in a fictional version of the 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, a historic landmark in Georgia which is near the campus of Berry College in Rome, Georgia.
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