Having heard both good and bad from friends who had seen New In Town, I sat down to watch the movie with some misgivings, and ended up really enjoying the whole adventure.
Renee Zellweger as Lucy is cluelessly funny and Harry Connick Jr. is great as a seriously baffled father and the rest of the cast are simply perfect in their roles. The Minnesotan ambience and accents seem as real as the snow and ice, and give the movie a great sense of place.
Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) is climbing the corporate ladder, and so she agrees to go to Minnesota to revamp a small plant owned by her company. She is slick, savvy, a Miami girl with all the hottest styles, and management know how, and is completely at a loss when she arrives in Minnesota.
The cold is her first obstacle, and then she must deal with people whose way of life is as foreign as if she landed on another continent. Scrappers and ice fishing, tapioca and gift giving, all confuse her, but she really makes an attempt to get to the heart of the manufacturing plant’s problems.
This pits her against Ted (Harry Connick Jr.) the local union representative, and for awhile it appears that their mutual dislike and distrust will prevail. As Lucy learns more about her workers, she sees them as people, and tries even harder to make the plant work.
As for Ted, Lucy bails him out of trouble with his young teen daughter, by helping her get styled for her first dance. Her care and concern also helps Ted get through the “my little girl is dating” horrors. The movie ends well, and with a positive and progressive note.
There is more to this film than just a chick flick story of boy meets girl and the rocky road to romance. Romantic themes do occur, but personal relationships of all kinds are explored, most notably the importance of friends, and having people believe in what you can do.
Some people have said that they feel the chemistry between Lucy and Ted was off, but I thought theirs was more of a realistic, slow growing attraction, believable and deep. I think there was a lot to love and enjoy in this movie, including quite a bit of gentle charm, and virtuous and principled action.
New in Town is presented on single disc, in widescreen format with a running time of 97 minutes. There are some great special features including interviews with cast and crew illuminating the trials of filming in Winnipeg (which doubled for Minnesota) in temperature of unbelievable minus somethings.
Cast and crew obviously had fun making this movie in spite of unfamiliar weather and gave it 100% in effort. It isn’t action/adventure, but there are laughs and sweet moments, and a sense of justice and fair play. Anyone for some tapioca?
New In Town is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a June 29th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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