jlf-7 Needs to be shown to all the under 40 people so they understand how it really was. Also a very good "period movie". Good acting. Good cast. Great music from the late 50's. Also enjoyed all the 50's cars. Great representation of a small town in America in the 50's Great Saturday afternoon movie. Also show the pressure for girls to marry instead of having a career. Want to see it again. Will probably purchase the DVD. Are there any more movies like this? Is a sad commentary on America in the mid-century. Will we ever get past all this? Ally Sheedy and Treat Williams do an excellent job. Also Virginia Madsen pays the typical social butterfly concentrating on men instead of college grades!

Rommel Miller This film offers the modern viewer born say during the Reagan Administration and well after or into the Civil Rights Movement, a little perspective on what was the socio-political atmosphere in Alabama in 1957, the year in which "Hearts of Dixie" was based. And while this film is no exceptional film by any stretch of the imagination, it is worthy of viewing and comment on several grounds.For one thing, it reveals the naiveté prevalent among the South and especially young Southerners of the time regarding the race issue, and especially their superficial and almost arrogant attitudes toward it.The film portrayed these elements with skill and prowess.The film also examined the social awakening of two of its main and central characters, namely Phoebe Cates' character for one, which was cursorily touched upon, and the role played by Ally Sheehy, the central character in the story. The juxtaposition of her supposed civility and grace mixed with her moral and ethical outrage at the act of injustice at the Elvis concert and afterwards was especially revealing and telling. And her awakening was a true metamorphosis, and the crowd scene shows this, for it allows her Southern-ness to essentially disintegrate and disappear was artful while her new self emerges and into the arms of her hero.It would appear that the first person who reviewed and panned this film failed to catch as much.The film itself may have been overacted and a bit contrived, that much is given, but overall the story and screenplay itself was a good and solid one and does not deserve to be panned in the manner in which it was panned. I would urge everyone to view this film with a more critical eye, which means to do so with an eye more toward seeing the film's cinematic merits and detractions and to look beyond just how the actors respond to their roles. For in just regarding an actor's portrayal, you too might be accused of taking the film a little too superficially.

tex-42 This is a movie that strives to be more than it is, but fails miserably. The plot is simple. A college senior, at a southern university in 1957 experiences an awakening, and realizes that she does not want the life that has long been planned for her, with the rich boyfriend and life of ease. Rather, she decides she wants to fight for racial equality, even if that means expulsion from school and the loss of everything she has.Heart of Dixie tries very hard, but ultimately it simply does not work. The actresses' accents come and go, and sound as if they are rejects from the cast of Gone with the Wind. The characters are underdeveloped, making it hard to care what happens to them and the movie itself drags. Oddly enough, Phoebe Cates barely has a presence in the film, but receives third billing. Essentially, this is a movie to watch when nothing else is on. Other than that, it is best to avoid it.

lynnshops The book this shameful, waste-of-time movie was based upon is actually quite good. It's called "Heartbreak Hotel" by Anne Rivers Siddons; she writes often about the South and being a mid-westerner, I'm grateful for some of the history and cultural explanations I've gleaned from her novels. Though she frequently can pour it on pretty thickly with lots of words, I find her character development to be good. That's why this movie was so disappointing; everyone was shallow and one-dimensional, there was no attraction for me to see between Maggie and Hoyt. And the sensationalism of Maggie confronting the black woman was blatant pandering and insulting to any of us who grew up during the civil rights years. Shame on the people who re-wrote a decent, moral book into this trashy screenplay! What a waste of talent and money.