Even when a drunken Melanie outs former best friend Billy Ray (Ethan Embry) in the local bar he forgives her. The townsfolk are her friends, friends who missed her. This is no Craggy Island populated by local eccentrics, save for one elderly Confederate colonel who spends his time blowing up anvils. Pigeon Forge is populated by a cast of people who almost verge on cliché but who just fall short. Nor are there any particularly noteworthy comedy performances – though Candice Bergen as the hypocritical mayor of New York does grab the lion’s share of what there is (sample: “There is nothing wrong with poor people. Both these moments are instigated by Melanie, not Jake. There are moments that the writers clearly felt hit the mark such as Mel’s kissing of Jake at the graveside of their dog (I’m not entirely sure why she suddenly does that) or her seeking him out on a storm-lashed beach (where I was at the very least expecting a bolt of lightning and a comment along the lines of “Maybe lightning does strike twice”). He’s the wrong guy! In comparison Jake is resolutely unromantic – he and Mel originally got married because she was pregnant, and he was so drunk at their wedding he threw up down her dress and missed the reception. There are elements of romance – but the main one is Andrew’s proposal in Tiffany’s. And Sweet Home Alabama does not particularly deliver on either of those points. Yet for it to be a successful romantic comedy I would say that it requires two key ingredients: romance and comedy.

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