New in Town (2009)

In 1953 Richard Bissel wrote a novel titled "7&1/2 Cents." In 1955 his novel became the book for a Broadway Musical titled "The Pajama Game." Then George Abbott had Bissel write the screenplay for a musical film version of the play. In that movie, as in the book, a female Iowa pajama factory worker who is head of the union at the factory falls in love with a male superintendent who has been hired by the factory's boss to help oppose the workers' demand for a pay rise (7 & 1/2 cents.) Take this book and change the male role into the union rep and make the female role to be an executive from a corporation who want to downsize the candy factory or close it down. Then move it from the Sunny South to the frozen north (Minnesota,) remove the music, and you have this film. I just simply could not get the "The Pajama Game" or "7&1/2 Cents" out of my mind as I watched this film. And the ending was exactly the same.

In a world where profit goes before ethics, and CGI goes before story, it is nice to watch a comedy drama that is not superficial.This film is all about community, love and compassion, and making a positive difference in this world that impacts and benefits the people around you.Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr. and J.K. Simmons are a pleasure to watch as always, and the lesser known actors such as Siobhan Fallon are excellent too.If you want to watch a heartwarming film with a beautiful moral message about human values and what really matters in this world, this film will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside and remind you what life is all about. For those who prefer blowing things up, watch something else.I haven't seen a decent comedy drama with such inspiring human values since Sweet Home Alabama. (and guess what, I just checked and screenplay writer C. Jay Cox was behind them both!) LOL Is there really only one screenwriter out there who can write romantic comedy with compassion and community at its core? In my opinion, the world would be a much better place if these values were the focus of Hollywood.This is a wonderful film which deserves much more than the rating it has.

Your know where you're going with this film as soon Harry Connick's name appears on the cast list. It is an utterly predictable, formulaic little movies that plods along from one cliché to the next until it arrives at it's inevitable destination. High flying, city dwelling executive Zellweger is sent to a mid-America town to down size and modernize the local plant where Connick is the Union Rep. The town is populated by good hearted folk with eccentric accents who depend on the one factory for local prosperity. You'll never guess what happens next - indeed you don't really need to guess - just think of all the similar films you've watched. And yet it's a well made little film. The principles delivering the goods and are well supported by the rest of the cast. So I have to admit I did enjoy it even though I don't think I be watching it again any time soon.

Just as a Random Number Generator is put to use in statistics and cryptography, Hollywood seems to employ a Random Romantic-Comedy Generator to churn out fluff like New In Town. For this one, they set the generator to bland and pushed the "Minnesota people are funny" button to produce a shallow and erratic but marginally amusing film that is entirely supporting by the subjective charms of Renee Zelwegger. If you like her, you won't mind this. If Zelwegger grates on you, watching this movie will feel like being dragged at high speed over a gravel road.Lucy Hill is a corporate executive from Miami dispatched during winter to a plant in New Ulm, Minnesota to handle its retooling for a new product line and the elimination of half the workforce. She arrives to meet a colorful cast of small town characters, including a handsome and abrasive union leader (Harry Connick Jr.). In a development that won't surprise any living thing on Earth, including the bacteria living in my commode, Lucy falls in love with both the townspeople and the union rep and when her bosses announce they're shutting down the plant entirely, she has to find a way to salvage both the livelihood of the community and her budding relationship.Now, I like Zelwegger so I found New In Town to be Perfectly Acceptable Entertainment. Yes, it's predictable and obvious and unoriginal and stumbles from one rom-com cliché to another without any structure or direction. Lucy Hill is a cipher, her love interest is practically an absentee character and the only reason the two of them wind up together is because there's literally no one else in the story they could be with. But there's nothing jaw-droppingly stupid about any of the plot, none of the characters have to act like compete and total morons to keep the story going and there are persistent attempts at humor through the whole thing. As chick flicks go, this is not a pain to sit through.The Random Romantic-Comedy Generator did manage to spit out a couple of interesting concepts, but they go criminally underutilized. Early on it's established that the workforce at the plant has made a habit of running mangers out of town and there are moments when New In Town almost wanders into a more lively and unexpected story about the conflict between an ambitious executive who cares only about her career and the subversively devious employees who don't take kindly to outsiders telling them how to run "their" plant. There's also a second where it seems like the movie might use scrapbooking as a metaphor of the difference between small town permanence and the disposable world of on-the-go corporate existence. Neither of those opportunities are recognized or taken advantage of.If you hate rom-coms and/or Zelwegger with a passion, this motion picture is not for you. If you like either or both, New In Town will be an okay way to kill 97 minutes. You know which group you belong to.