New in Town

Jonas Elmer's "New in Town" is a common love story with a twist.

Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) is an up-and-coming executive in Miami. When given the opportunity, she volunteers for a temporary project to restructure a manufacturing plant. She hopes this will spark a promotion.

What she doesn't know and is discouraged by at first, is that it is located in New Ulm, Minn.—the exact opposite of what she is used to. While the sun, beaches and shore-front condos filled her life, she treks up north to the land of snowstorms, ice fishing and scrapbooking.

After time however, Hill surprisingly falls in love with a part of Minnesota—the man of her dreams (Harry Connick Jr.) This film follows Hill through her journey of her career and her love life.

Elmer's "New in Town" is written like many other romantic comedies. A woman moves to a new town, at first she hates it, and then she meets a man and falls in love with him. This film is a very predictable film. I would have preferred something unpredictable to happen.

As for the acting, Zellweger's and Connick Jr.'s acting are both well-done, especially Zellweger's. Elmer's choice of choosing her for the part was a good one; she fits the character exactly as I would have pictured. However, before Connick Jr.'s character appeared in the film, I would have expected his character to be played by a younger actor.

Another critique I have about the film is about the relationship between Zellweger's character and Connick Jr.'s character. Although I feel the manufacturing plant scenes are important to the film, I feel however that they overpower the relationship scenes. I would have liked to have seen more relationship scenes and less job scenes.

Finally, while I enjoy the setting of the film because it is unique, I believe Elmer over-exaggerates these characters' traits. Being from Minnesota myself, I find the exaggeration of speech comical at times. However, I believe he over-uses it a little bit. Not all Minnesotans talk like those characters in the film.

What I find even more ironic is that New Ulm, Minn., is southwest of the Twin Cities—not in northern Minnesota, which is the accent Elmer uses in the film.

Written by: Jackie McClellan

Reviewers Rating: 7.5
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 1

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