New in Town

New in Town is a 2009 American-Canadian romantic comedy drama 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.[1] The film opened to negative reviews but was a financial success grossing $30 million against its $8 million budget.

For other uses, see New in Town (disambiguation).
New in Town
Directed byJonas Elmer
Produced byPeter Safran
Darryl Taja
Tracey E. Edmonds
Paul Brooks
Phyllis Laing
Andrew Paquin
Written byC. Jay Cox
Ken Rance
StarringRenée Zellweger
Harry Connick, Jr.
J.K. Simmons
Frances Conroy
Siobhan Fallon Hogan
Music byJohn Swihart
CinematographyChris Seager
Edited byTroy Takaki
Production
company
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • January 30, 2009 (2009-01-30)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
Canada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8 million
Box office$30 million

Plot

A high-powered consultant (Renée Zellweger) 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
  • Renée Zellweger as Lucy Hill
  • Harry Connick Jr. as Ted Mitchell
  • Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Blanche Gunderson
  • J.K. Simmons[2] as Stu Kopenhafer
  • Frances Conroy as Trudy Van Uuden
  • Hilary Carroll as Kimberley
  • Barbara James Smith as Joan
  • Nancy Drake as Flo Kopenhafer
  • Mike O'Brien as Lars Ulstead
  • Ferron Guerreiro as Roberta "Bobby" Mitchell
  • James Durham as Rob Deitmar
  • Robert Small as Donald Arling
  • Kristina Dawson as Clubber

Release

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.[3] 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.[4]

Critical reception

New in Town received mostly negative reviews from critics. The film has a 27% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 171 reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10, with the consensus: "Clichéd 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."[5]

DVD

The "making of..." feature on the DVD documents that the cast and crew survived bitterly cold temperatures of below −50 °F (−46 °C) in Manitoba, which sometimes resulted in malfunctions of cameras and other equipment.

Soundtrack

Songs featured in trailer/TV spots:

Songs featured in the film:

References
  1. King, Randall (January 7, 2008). "Hollywood heat comes to local Chilled in Miami shoot". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  2. King, Randall (December 15, 2007). "Spider-Man regular heading to Winnipeg to get Chilled". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
  3. McClintock, Pamela (January 31, 2009). "Box office crown 'Taken' by Fox". Variety. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
  4. "New in Town (2009)". Box Office Mojo. February 23, 2009. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
  5. "New in Town (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
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