Reese Witherspoon, Patrick Dempsey and Candice Bergen in Sweet Home Alabama. But even her mega-watt smile can't illuminate entirely the dark and shabby corners lurking on the edges of this movie. She has grace, charm, beauty, and is just so damn likable that she lights up the screen enough that you don't notice the movie's weaknesses while she is on screen. The only saving grace to this whole disappointing film is the presence of Reese Witherspoon. Even when one of their members confesses to being gay, this entire small southern town, which doesn't even have an ATM yet, opens their arms in acceptance to him. Everyone from New York is a bitchy snob, and everyone from this small, seemingly idyllic small town is perfect. It falls prey to stereo-types, clichés, and tired, predictable, plot devices. This is where the movie starts to fall apart. And so back home she must go to get her husband to sign the divorce papers he has refused to sign so far. Spoiling this otherwise ideal situation is the fact that she is still married to a man back in her home town in Alabama. It tells the story of a rising young fashion designer living in New York City, engaged to the son of the Mayor of New York City. However, while Reese Witherspoon is as sweet and as likable in this movie as always, the movie itself is only mediocre at best. And like Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon is making a tidy living by appearing in light-hearted romantic comedies like this one Sweet Home Alabama. Because surely, in the form of this girl-next-door actress, we have found a worthy successor to that other famous blonde. I have a theory that when Hollywood realized that Meg Ryan was getting too old to be America's Blonde Sweetheart, they took a bit of her DNA and re-incarnated her as Reese Witherspoon. Jean Smart and Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama.