Heart of Dixie

Based on Anne River Siddons' novel Heartbreak Hotel, this tepid drama is being billed as a story about racial injustice "in the tradition of Mississippi Burning." Hardly. Ally Sheedy stars as Maggie, a Southern college sorority sister who witnesses the beating of a black man at an Elvis concert, and writes about it for her school newspaper. Unfortunately, this galvanizing incident occurs more than halfway into the film. For nearly the first hour we suffer through Sheedy and company adopting awful Southern accents and worrying about "getting pinned" and whether a close friend's death should interfere with the naming of the "Honeysuckle Queen." These Alabama coeds have the moral insight of warthogs, and so by the time Maggie has donned her righteous indignation, we simply don't care. Heart of Dixie is an insulting trivialization of a sensitive issue, and a lame film all around. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)