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Just don’t go looking for the house used as Jake’s from the movie. It contains stunning gardens from the 1930s and offers guided tours of the interior with admission. The Martha Berry Museum, near the home’s entrance, educates visitors on Berry’s life along with the history of the school and the town of Rome. Together with Elle Woods in the Legally Blonde movies Reese Witherspoon got her career role in Sweet Home Alabama, This one must have been real popular in the red states. I do not know where to start, I was liking this movie, but I didn't think it was going to be so cliché and cheesy at the end, I was very disappointed. The movie has quite funny parts that made me laugh out loud, it starts very well and the plot unfolds in a more or less coherent and entertaining way.
I am glad I didn't listen to critics and watched this movie! It is a very good movie with charm, humor, sadness and most of all, genial acting! Reese Witherspoon and Josh Lucas are the two characters that you can relate to. I think what makes this movie good is that it is a story you can relate to, but made with humor.
Box office performance
Reese Witherspoon can't do much wrong at least most cases. Very sweet with a nice balance of comedy but more of a romance than anything to me. I really enjoy anything with Ethan Embry he's great in Can't Hardly Wait, Cheap Thrills, and Devils Candy. Also Andy Tennent makes a lot of great feel-good flicks, I should watch more of his projects. This is a fine, funny movie that relies more on an ensemble cast than just on Reese Witherspoon.
It wasn't used during filming, but actor Patrick Dempsey stayed here while working. Used to stage the large-scale Civil War reenactment with Melanie's father Earl, the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers was one of the sites of the 1996 Olympic Games. Volleyball, equestrian and pentathlon events took place here.
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
Suffice to say I'm sick to death of movies in which women who work hard and fulfill their dreams are seen as "snooty" and "above station", and have to be brought down. If you like romantic comedies, you should like this film. Despite its flaws this movie is upbeat, entertaining and it comes with a lesson about the futility of trying to escape your past that might prove invaluable to some audience members. Apart from the fact that the main character is the most annoying and snarky one out there, the movie had major plot holes to boot.
It was only humane from Melanie's skewed, immature-at-the-time perspective, believing the cat would be killed instantly. It is still roaming town because it somehow survived the attempt to blow it up and it either never had cancer or has gone into remission. Candice Bergen is in this film as Dempsey's mother who is the Mayor of New York and she's clearly modeled on a most unflattering portrait of Hillary Clinton. She should have gotten some Oscar recognition for her work here. This is a most old fashioned type of film and I'm not surprised that Buena Vista the distribution arm of Walt Disney films brought this one out. Witherspoon is winning and wonderful and Alabama has it's best foot forward in this film.
The Cold Case Kidnapping and Murder of Dana Bradley - True Crime
She is such a good actress that you do begin to wonder what she is doing in a fluffy romantic comedy like this, especially as it is definitely not as good as 'Legally Blonde'. But I'm glad she is in it, because it is just like an old-fashioned studio 'vehicle', tailored to suit her upcoming stardom. Once you adjust to the slowish pace, the movie is worth staying with, in spite of its predictability.

"I don't know why we thought that was really funny," Tennant said. The ending of "Sweet Home Alabama" puts you in a good mood as Melanie finally realizes that Jake is her true love. "I don't know why we thought that was really funny," director Andy Tennant told Insider. Set in the Northwest Georgia town of Rome, Oak Hill is the former home of Martha Berry which is located on the campus of Berry College. Built in the 1880s in the Greek Revival style, Berry lived much of her life in the home before and after founding the school. The big houses Melanie drives past on her way into her town are in Eufala, Alabama, including the Shorter Mansion.
There is a famous legend about the way that Mermaid Tears came to be, and it really is kind of a neat story. It seems that years ago, on a dark and stormy night (don't great stories usually start this way?), a Schooner was out at sea being perilously tossed about on the sea by a terrible storm. A young mermaid was traveling alongside the Schooner, having fallen in love with the ship, and from a distance, with the ship's Captain. She was very worried about the safety of the crew of the ship and the ship itself.
Jake -her husband- doesn't want a divorce and they spend at least 20 minutes of the film fighting and hating each other for that, which would make you assume what caused their marriage to fail... After that, Melanie reunites with some of her old friends and one night while she is drunk, she insults them by telling them, in other words, they're some big losers with stagnant lives. Fantastic, had me hooked from the start, they were on to a winner as soon as they cast Dakota Fanning as 'young' Melanie. Now i'm a sucker for good 'chick Flicks' and this one tops my list, Reese shines as Melanie, the girl who realises that what she's been looking for was right there at home waiting for her.