New in Town
Welcome at the bumpkin’s, the title that “New In Town” might have if his director Jonas Elmer (a Danish filmmaker, noted for his “Monas Verden and Nynne” which makes its first foray Hollywood) had been quite honest. To look at this test, a sort of mixture between comedy unlikely Danny Boon “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” and any romantic comedy format, which makes us regret the more than bitter “Fargo” by the Coen brothers, it is to open eyes surprisingly before the condescension with which it treats its subjects.
Lucy Hill has it all. The blond with a big career and a lot of money. In sunny Miami, it is difficult to hide his teeth scratch on the floor. To help their progress, she accepts even monitor the restructuring of a local factory in winter …, New Ulm, Minnesota, 13 593 souls. On site, the “working girl” discovers the bitter cold (for the story, the film was shot in Winnipeg during a record of cold temperature), the patterns a little too familiar of the local inhabitants, their love for Jesus and tapioca desserts and especially the very sexy, but gruff, Ted Mitchell, president of the union.
Saying that “New In Town” is a farce full of clichés would be a mild understatement. Accumulating all the prejudices that may have “People of the City” on rural Minnesota, their accent, their good old traditional values, their origins in Sweden and Germany, they used to live in a crazy atmosphere, the film also slow at the option of a rate plan that you can plan in almost every episode of the production.
Forgetting any insolence, any irony or peps on the side of the road, shot through without a light white and dull and hiding his weaknesses as an abuse of dynamic music we supposed to forget the obvious, the story nevertheless manages to pull a few smiles, thanks to solid performances rather Siobhan Fallon Hogan (an old of the “Saturday Night Live” show), Frances Conroy (made famous by her role as the stressed mom in “Six Feet Under”) and JK Simmons (the father in the great “Juno” ) and a first quarter of an hour that we would save more readily.
Side of the couple-star, Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr, things go bad again. Lacking chemistry, the duo is only half of want they could be, much more at ease in the comic register than in romantic one. A problem is also that the widespread film seems caught up in this love story which does not seem to really know what to do.
The great difficulty in tying a second film, this social, evoking more finesse the fate of these small towns where all the inhabitants or almost in the same factory, the film continues in effect to force them to want to feel it very well. However, as with any effort forced it feels. It shows. And it is very difficult to forget.
Rating: 2/5
Directed by: Jonas Elmer
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, J.K. Simmons, Mike O’Brien, Frances Conroy, Ferron Guerreiro, Barbara James Smith, James Durham, Robert Small, Wayne Nicklas, Hilary Carroll, Nancy Drake, Stewart Zully
Movie Stills
Posted on Sunday, February 15th, 2009 at 2:44 pm