Sweet Home Alabama

A rising young fashion designer (Reese Witherspoon) agrees to marry her rich boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey), but first she has to get a divorce from the down-home hunk (Josh Lucas) she married straight out of high school and ran out on six years ago. Witherspoon is a real star, no error; the proof is that she has to carry an excruciating waste of time like this, playing a shallow, selfish, destructive, mean-spirited shrew. (We’re still expected to love her because she’s our Reese.) The movie wants nothing but to entertain, and it may do the trick for some, but it’s as grueling and monotonous as a dripping faucet. It sounds like it was written by a computer and looks like it was directed by a camera. But, for the record, it was written by Douglas J. Eboch and C. Jay Cox, and directed by Andy Tennant.