Sweet Home Alabama 2002

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Will the parties responsible for kidnapping Reese Witherspoon and putting a grinning replicant in her place please bring her back? Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: A romantic comedy so rote, dull and predictable that it makes You've Got Mail seem innovative and fresh. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It is definitely worth seeing. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: This movie is phony, phony, phony. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: If Sweet Home Alabama, directed by Andy Tennant from a screenplay by C. Jay Cox, has the ingredients for a classic screwball comedy, the movie is in such a rush to entertain that it barely connects the dots of its story. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Pure formula, right down to Melanie's final choice, which will come as no surprise to anyone paying attention. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Makes Smokey and the Bandit look like To Kill a Mockingbird. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Witherspoon has charmed her way through weak material before, but she's too inexperienced to save the character from director Andy Tennant, whose main achievement here is to turn his star's natural twinkling menace into malice. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: It's leaden and predictable, and laughs are lacking. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Shallow. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Light to the point of disposability, Sweet Home Alabama is a small screwball comic idea that spins out far too long. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The movie is genial but never inspired, and little about it will stay with you. Read more

Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, L.A. Weekly: To call the film contrived would imply that some sort of effort had been made, when Sweet Home Alabama is nothing but dead lazy and slow. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: As predictable as a Florida election controversy, as wholly amusing as a cold plate of grits. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Would be an unendurable viewing experience for this ultra-provincial New Yorker if 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon were not on hand to inject her pure fantasy character, Melanie Carmichael, with a massive infusion of old-fashioned Hollywood magic. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Die-hard fans of Witherspoon and the romantic comedy genre will probably find enough to like in this film to make it worth a trip to the theater. Everyone else would be best served by spending their hard-earned money on something else. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I enjoyed Witherspoon and the local color, but I am so very tired of the underlying premise. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Every time you look, Sweet Home Alabama is taking another bummer of a wrong turn. Read more

Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle: This is a feel-good movie that does just that. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Reese Witherspoon makes the proverbial silk purse out of a sow's ear in the romantic comedy Sweet Home Alabama, demonstrating how even the most mediocre of material can be redeemed by a convincing performance. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Sweet Home Alabama is the latest picture to give you the sense that Hollywood filmmakers simply plucked another old pop-tune title ripe for ripping off, then were shaken by the rude reality of coming up with a script to jerry-build around it. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Overly eager-to-please pic is as formulaic as any sitcom and is the first film to feature rising star Reese Witherspoon in an unintentionally unflattering light. Read more

Laura Sinagra, Village Voice: Despite her relentless vim and winsome facial symmetry, Witherspoon is just too dialed-up to be America's Sweetheart. Read more