New in Town Synopsis: Lucy Hill, an ambitious executive, lives the high life in Miami. She loves climbing the corporate ladder as well as all the material goods that her success can buy. When she is offered a temporary assignment to restructure a factory in a backwater town, she eagerly accepts and anticipates a huge promotion in the pipeline. However, what Lucy gets is a life-changing experience and romance with the man of her dreams.
Lucy Hill is an ambitious consultant in Miami looking for a promotion to VP of her company. When she reluctantly agrees to oversee a restructuring of a manufacturing plant, she’s further dismayed to learn that she’ll need to be onsite in a small Minnesota town called New Ulm. Almost immediately, Lucy is at odds with Stu, the plant’s foreman, Ted, the Union Rep, and the entire community of New Ulm, not to mention the bitter cold, which Lucy is not prepared for.
Eventually, she begins to accept the community’s quirks and hospitality while falling for Ted, a widower with a teenage daughter. However, she still has a job to do, and her boss tells Lucy that they’re going to close the plant and essentially bankrupt the town.
New in Town is a rom-com that follows the rom-com handbook fairly well. Unfortunately, that also means there’s not a lot of originality to the story. That doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable, however. I thought RenĂŠe Zellweger handled the “fish out of water” trope pretty well with her portrayal of Lucy. As expected, a high-powered businesswoman who drives a BMW and has a home overlooking the ocean can’t possibly fathom small-town eccentricities. She looks down upon them and is desperate to return to city life. Also, as expected, Lucy becomes humbled as the community accepts her.
Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. have pretty decent chemistry, and I thoroughly enjoyed Lucy’s scenes with her scrapbooking, tapioca-loving secretary, Blanche (Siobhan Fallon Hogan). JK Simmons’s presence is always welcome in any movie, and he provided Lucy with a much-needed non-weather-related adversary.
There are some genuinely funny moments in New in Town, complete with a romantic kiss between our two leads, followed by applause. But all in all, I found it to be… fine. Mostly okay. It was predictable but enjoyable enough that I was happy to have watched it again. It doesn’t hurt that Harry Connick Jr is bearded and in flannel for most of the movie. *insert heart eyes here*
This isn’t a movie I’m going to tell you to run and watch, but if you’re ever bored and want some small-town coziness where you don’t want to think too much, New in Town would be a good choice.
Watched: 01/16/2021
Notable Song: That’s Where It Is by Carrie Underwood
