Reese Witherspoon is being hailed as America’s newest Sweetheart, but I’m not sure she is able to live up to the title in Sweet Home Alabama. Although this film was a big hit in the U.S., it does not have nearly the charm of the similar film that made America's Sweetheart of the '90s, Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. Here, Witherspoon stars as Melanie, a southern girl who runs away from her humble past and makes it big as a fashion designer in New York. When her boyfriend Andrew (TV miniseries star Patrick Dempsey), son of NY's mayor, proposes unexpectedly, she accepts but the next day runs back to Alabama, forced to confront her past, including the high school sweetheart husband, Jake (Josh Lucas from A Beautiful Mind), she's still married to. But when she's forced to stick around when Jake refuses to sign the divorce papers, she suddenly realizes that home may not be as bad as she remembered it.

The big problem with Alabama is not that it is completely implausible (although it is), but that it has no magic. Witherspoon tries hard to be cute and perky and make us empathize with her, but she just can't pull it off. There is not nearly enough character development for us to feel anything for anyone. No character's motivations feel real, and though we see it coming, we don't quite understand why Melanie does what she does in the end. Other than the upbeat soundtrack, Sweet Home Alabama may make you wish you had just stayed home.