Sweet Home Alabama goofs

Melanie, in jest, wonders whether the Piggly Wiggly has run out of soap. The nearest Piggly Wiggly lies more than 100 miles from the story's setting.

When Melanie's parents are arguing over the television volume while speaking on the telephone, Pearl comments, "They could have heard it all the way at Joe and Lurlynn's house." In fact, Lurlynn is married to Clinton, not Joe.

When the exterior of Pearl and Earl's trailer is shown, it is clearly a single‑wide; however, the interior shots depict a noticeably larger double‑wide trailer.

At Tiffany's, Andrew asks about Christmas in Ireland and Melanie replies that it is four months away, which suggests the scene is set in August or September. For much of the remainder of the film, characters in Alabama are wearing long-sleeved clothing.

At the reception at the end of the film, Mel's dress is clean and dry. Earlier on the beach it had been dirty and sodden from the storm and coated in sand.

On the beach during the downpour, Melanie leans in to kiss Jake, one hand clasping his cheek. In the bird's-eye shot she wraps both arms around his neck.

When Melanie is at Jake's house in Alabama, the leaves on the trees are beginning to change colour, signalling that the weather is turning cooler and autumn is approaching. In contrast, the trees in the relatively cooler New York still remain entirely green.

The extent of the dark regrowth at Melanie's blonde roots changes often — on occasion it vanishes altogether.

While Melanie and her mum are making jam, her boyfriend and her dad come in. Her mum takes off her oven glove, but in a later shot the oven glove is still on.

After Melanie leaves the Carmichael estate, she strolls down the town’s high street with the sleeves of her dress hanging below her shoulders; in earlier shots they rested on her shoulders.

In the wedding scene, Melanie's left earring is seen alternating between being snagged in her veil and hanging loose.

Tears streaking down Melanie's cheeks while she was at the cemetery.

While Jake and Melanie are talking inside Jake's house, Jake stands before a cluster of candles and one is extinguished. In the following shot, that candle is alight once more.

During Melanie's kiss with Jake in the rainstorm, she comes in with her head inclined to the right. As the camera shifts its angle, her head is seen tilting to the left. In the closing shot, her head once more leans to the right.

As Melanie crosses the battlefield, her audio equipment is clearly visible, stowed inside her boot.

As Jake drinks from a can of light beer, the camera appears reflected in the base of the can.

As the wedding guests flee the rain, a camera and its operator are visible in the upper-left corner of the frame.

When Melanie's father, Earl, comes back from the front with Andrew, he remarks, "Look what I found walking down I-58". If the film is set in Pigeon Creek, Alabama, the nearest interstate would be I-65.

Andrew tells his mum that they will be staying at The Golden Cherry Motel. That motel is located in Opelika, Alabama, which is nowhere near where the film is meant to have been set.

The street where Melanie is dropped off to reach Tiffany's back entrance isn't anywhere near the actual Tiffany's shop.

Andrew Hennings claims he keeps a Learjet based in Mobile. The film is set in Tuscaloosa County, roughly an hour's drive from Birmingham International Airport via a modern motorway and about three hours' drive from Mobile along a country road.

Melanie passes a road sign for "Greenville" as she returns to her Alabama home; that town sits roughly a two-hour drive from the coast. If that is near her childhood home, she would not have been there unaccompanied as a child, nor simply popped in after the wedding. If she lived near the coast, she would not be travelling through Greenville.

When lightning strikes sand or sandy soil, it can fuse the grains into a glass-like solid known as a "fulgurite". Genuine fulgurites are typically tubular, often partly hollow, with a granular outer surface. The clear glass objects seen in this film were unlikely to have been formed by lightning.

Melanie would not have been able to marry Andrew, even if she had signed the papers before the wedding. The documents would need to be submitted to the judge overseeing the case, and at least one party would have to attend court to answer questions. Once the judge had given approval, there is a waiting period of up to two months (depending on where they lodged the application) before the divorce is finalised. If she had gone ahead with the wedding, she would have committed the offence of bigamy.

If Melanie has been away for seven years, as she told Andrew at the start of the film, the limitation period for her offence of pushing the sheriff’s mother’s tractor into the water would have expired, so she could not be arrested for it.

At the fair, Melanie's outfit shifts from a dress paired with cowboy boots to blue jeans and a denim jacket. Several hours elapsed between her wearing the dress during the day and her jeans at night. It's a small town, so she might have gone home, changed and then returned to the fair.

When Melanie's mum makes plum jam, the fruits that look like peaches are actually smooth, yellow plums, such as Chickasaw plums.

Melanie Smooter conceals her "low" background by adopting the surname "Carmichael" in New York, and that's how she's known in the fashion world. Several of her former friends in Alabama say they are aware of her career as a designer; one even says he's read articles about her on the Internet. Why, then, would the town be so surprised to learn that she had been living as Carmichael instead of Smooter?

When Melanie's solicitor, Mr Buford, attempts to find her, he questions the townsfolk to see if anyone knows where Melanie Carmichael is. If Buford is acting for her in the divorce, he would have to know her real surname, Smooter; otherwise he could not obtain the divorce. Divorces may only be granted to the same people who were married, and Melanie Carmichael never existed and never married Jake.

Melanie is at the Carmichael Plantation to speak with Bobby Ray and Barry Lowenstein when one of Kate's assistants suddenly turns up, posing as a reporter as he attempts to dig up dirt on Melanie. Melanie clearly does not recognise him and is taken aback to find him in Kate's limo after everyone returns to Manhattan. Yet Barry had been standing beside Kate when Melanie and Andrew's engagement was revealed.

While Melanie is at the Carmichael Plantation to speak with Bobby Ray, Barry Lowenstein — one of Kate's assistants — turns up posing as a reporter, though he is actually after compromising material on Melanie. Melanie clearly does not recognise him and is surprised to see him in Kate's limousine after everyone returns to Manhattan. Yet Barry had been present, standing beside Kate when Melanie and Andrew's engagement was revealed.

In the cemetery, after Jake tells Melanie to leave, she bumps into a "stone" dog perched on top of a headstone, which wobbles far more than a loosely fixed ornament would, revealing that it's made of foam.

When Jake drives Andrew to Melanie's house, the gear lever is clearly in the park position.

When Jake tosses a bone into the lake for the dog to retrieve, the animal that surfaces is plainly a prop, exhibiting no lifelike movement.

Jake gives a gravestone a nudge and it wobbles backwards and forwards, revealing that it is made from a lightweight material such as foamboard.

When Melanie Smooter (Reese Witherspoon) is arrested and brought into custody, she is photographed against a height chart that registers 5 feet 6 inches. In fact, Reese Witherspoon's real height is 5' 1¾.

While Earl is driving his lorry, the gear lever can clearly be seen set to "park".

As Melanie walks to the fair, a fire engine bears "Pigeon Creek Fire Department" on its door, with "K.F.D." clearly displayed on the front right corner.

As Jake's mother urges him to pursue Melanie, a sticker on the driver's side of the rear windscreen depicts the outline of Georgia.

When Melanie and her dad, Earl, are driving in the lorry, Earl, as with many characters in films and television shows filmed in a stationary vehicle, continually rocks the steering wheel from side to side. People who are actually driving wouldn't do that, because the car would weave from side to side on the road; drivers keep the wheel steady so the vehicle continues in a straight line.

As Melanie leaves Jake in the pet cemetery, she brushes past the headstone decorated with a dachshund figure, causing it to tremble — it is a foam-rubber prop, not real stone.

The divorce paperwork shown in the film unmistakably bears the year 2001. This detail fits the film's timeline — the main events occur in 2002 — suggesting the divorce had already been underway for some time.