New in Town


New in Town is a 2009 American-Canadian romantic comedy film, directed by Jonas Elmer, starring Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr and Siobhan Fallon Hogan. It was filmed in Winnipeg and Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada, and in Los Angeles and South Beach, Miami, Florida. The film opened to negative reviews but was a financial success grossing $30.1 million against its $8 million budget.

Plot

A high-powered consultant in love with her upscale Miami lifestyle is sent to New Ulm, Minnesota, to oversee the restructuring of a blue-collar manufacturing plant. After enduring a frosty reception from the locals, icy roads and freezing weather, she warms up to the small town's charm, and eventually finds herself being accepted by the community. When she is ordered to close down the plant and put the entire community out of work, she's forced to reconsider her goals and priorities, and finds a way to save the town. After tasting her secretary's secret recipe of tapioca pudding, she decides to adapt a former yogurt production line to produce this special recipe of tapioca.

Cast

The film was released at 1,941 theaters on January 30, 2009 and grossed in its opening day approx. $2.4 million to $2.5 million. By the end of the first 3-day weekend, it had grossed an estimated $6.75 million, placing it 8th for the weekend in gross box office ticket sales.

Box office

The film grossed $16,734,283 at the domestic box office, $12,276,534 at the foreign box office for a total gross of $30,010,817 worldwide.

Critical reception

New in Town received mostly negative reviews from critics. The film has a 29% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 167 reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10, with the consensus: "Cliched and short on charm, New In Town is a pat genre exercise that fails to bring the necessary heat to its Minnesota setting." Allan Hunter of the Daily Express has said, "Predictable and uninspired, it is one more example of the dumb comedies that Hollywood is churning out at an alarming rate." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian was also critical, stating "Renée Zellweger's rabbity, dimply pout – surely the strangest facial expression in Hollywood – simpers and twitches out of the screen in this moderate girly flick that adheres with almost religious fanaticism to the feelgood romcom handbook."

DVD

The "making of..." feature on the DVD documents that the cast and crew survived bitterly cold temperatures of below in Manitoba, which sometimes resulted in malfunctions of cameras and other equipment.

Soundtrack

Songs featured in trailer/TV spots:
Songs featured in the film: