Spring Break
'New in Town' is nothing new
All-star cast not enough to rescue film, chick-flick gives romantic comedies a bad name.
By: Stephanie Rancier
Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: Features
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Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) is an overly aggressive, ladder-climbing corporate stooge who comfortably works in the modern high rise of the Miami branch of a food-processing company. During a typical corporate meeting, with Lucy as the only woman in the room, the company's president brings forth the problem of the company's poorly operating plant in New Ulm, Minn. Every dignified-looking employee in their expensive, perfectly tailored suits ducks their heads like immature children in a classroom hoping the teacher doesn't call on them. Lucy, seeing the job of reshaping the small town plant as an opportunity to achieve a CEO position, offers her all-business services to impress her boss. Moving to Minnesota for a short time didn't seem too bad - at the time.
Upon her arrival in Minnesota, Lucy looks prepared for a business-style battle that only allowed armor with labels like Gucci and Armani. One high-heeled step out of the warm airplane into the shock of a brutal Minnesota winter quickly stripped Lucy of her stern, professional demeanor. Little did the city-spoiled gal know the new weather would be the least of her problems in this small community.
Blanche Gunderson (Siobhan Fallon) serves as Lucy's one-woman welcoming committee, house-hunter and "secretary." Blanche is nosey, openly religious and talks incessantly with a flamboyant Minnesotan accent. Blanche introduces Lucy to a rugged, good-looking guy named Ted (Harry Connick Jr.) who was one person Blanche thought might inspire Lucy to loosen up. But it was going to take much more than a handsome guy to break Lucy's icy persona.
Lucy has no intentions of forming any type of personal relationships and certainly no attempts to adjust to her new surroundings. Secretly, she is making a downsizing list of the plant employees. Unfortunately, the more masculine, hunting-centered minds of the plant would rather focus on hazing their new, girly boss. After butting heads with practically every citizen of New Ulm, Lucy finally starts to relax and embrace the simple life after a near death experience.
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