New In Town a “pursing” review
New In Town
In Theaters: Jan. 30, 2009
Director: Jonas Elmer
MPAA: PG-13
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr., Siobhan Fallon Hogan, J.K. Simmons
“New In Town” stars Renee Zellweger as Lucy Hill. Lucy is a successful executive from Miami, Fl. As she climbs the corporate ladder on her way to VP, she decides to take a small assignment in Minnesota. What we notice about “Miami Lucy” is that she is single, structured, driven, and has expensive taste. She’s a little bit uptight for the small town, New Ulm, where she will make her temporary home.
Now we aren’t told this, but apparently Lucy has never lived outside of Florida. We could assume that she makes big bucks, but has yet to take a vacation to anywhere frigid. She seems totally shocked that Minnesota is freezing. This only adds to the element that Lucy is extremely out of place.
Upon arrival to New Elm, Lucy is greeted by her receptionist, Blanche Gunderson. Blanche offers Lucy a warm welcome and invites her over for dinner. At dinner, Lucy meets a group of local scrap bookers and a single guy in town, Ted (Harry Connick, Jr.). Lucy is truly embarrassed because she realizes that this seems to be a set-up. She doesn’t have anything in common with back-woods Ted and proceeds to announce their differences over dinner.
Now Lucy’s assignment is to restructure a manufacturing plant located in New Elm. Lucy goes in with the knowledge that a number of the employees are to be scrapped to streamline production of a new protein-bar. The plant workers know that anytime corporate sends them someone jobs will be lost. They are extremely cold to Lucy and even play a prank on her to get out of a day’s work.
Now for a little twist, Lucy has to work with the local union rep. on her plans to restructure and low-and-behold, Ted is the local union rep. Lucy offers an apology for her behavior at dinner and they agree to keep things professional.
What is believed to be a small stay in New Ulm turns into months and months. Lucy has finally earned the trust of the plant workers and has grown to like New Ulm. Although her and Ted got off to a rough start they develop a slow romance. Lucy helps Ted’s daughter get ready for a formal and later that night she and Ted are able to get to know each other. Lucy discovers that Ted is originally from the Carolinas (I actually forgot which one) and moved to Minnesota when his wife became sick with cancer. When his wife died, he didn’t want to up-root his daughter and has been in New Ulm ever since. A make-out session begins and is only broken up with the arrival home of his teenage daughter.
Now for the twist, Corporate has the results back from the protein-bar test markets, and they realize they don’t sell. Orders are that the plant must be shut down within a month. Lucy is depressed, and now the whole plant including Blanche(receptionist) has turned on her. Lucy has grown so attached to the town. She racks her brain for a way to keep the plant. She flies back to Miami to plead her case, but with no luck.
With some creative thinking, Lucy comes up with a plan to give the plant one more shot before closing, but the plant workers will have to trust her……
Overall, I really enjoyed “New In Town.” The story was fun and the characters were interesting to get to know. The only thing that bothered me during the movie are all the close-ups of Renee Zelleweger. I think she is really pretty but something odd is going on with her lips. I can’t tell if it is filler or the unnatural pursing that some of the Hollywood women do, i.e. Olsen Twins & Angelina Jolie. It really was distracting amidst a fairly good Chick Flick.
La Femme Reel- The Chick Flick Dossier
Photo Credits: New In Town- www.newintownmovie.com
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