And we know the odds are low that Melanie will get the divorce, return to New York and marry the mayor's son. We know that the movie absolutely requires that Melanie reject bright lights, big city and return to the embrace of her home town. Jay Cox, the screenwriter, is a student of writing coach Syd Field's theories (i.e., analyze successful movies and copy their structures). So, OK, we understand how the formula works, even without learning that C. guy, in the meantime, cannot be permitted to become a total jerk, because the movie's poignancy factor demands that he be Understanding, as indeed he would be, with a Jackie lookalike mom who is mayor of New York, a city where in this movie nothing bad has happened in recent memory. He must meanwhile undergo a subtle transformation so that when we first meet him, we think he's a redneck hayseed, and then later he has transmogrified into a sensitive, intelligent, caring male. A clue comes when the mayor advises her prospective in-laws to 'go back to your double-wide and fry something.' The Jake character is more complex, as he needs to be, because the screenplay requires him to keep a secret that common sense insists he divulge immediately. Her parents ( Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place), who wile away their days lounging around the double-wide practicing sitcom dialogue, look on with love and sympathy, because they know that sooner or later she'll realize that home is right here. When Melanie returns home, she's greeted by the locals, who remember her high school hijinks (like tying dynamite to a stray cat, ho, ho). That's why he's never given her the divorce. His plan: prove himself, to earn her respect and get her back again. Her husband, Jake ( Josh Lucas), was her high school sweetheart, but, looking ahead at a lifetime of dirty diapers and dishes with a loser, she fled north. Her folks live in a luxury mobile home with lots of La-Z-Boys and knitted afghans (La-Z-Boy: the sign of a home where the man makes the decisions). Specifically, she doesn't want Andrew to discover that she is already married to a local boy, and that her family doesn't own a moss-dripped plantation. After he proposes to Melanie in Tiffany's, which he has rented for the occasion, she flies back home to Alabama to take care of unfinished business. lookalike whose mother ( Candice Bergen) is mayor of New York. She's in love with Andrew ( Patrick Dempsey), a JFK Jr. Reese Witherspoon, who is the best reason to see 'Sweet Home Alabama,' stars as Melanie Carmichael, a small-town girl who moves to the Big Apple and while still in her 20s becomes a famous fashion designer.

Sweet home alabama movie ending scene