New in Town (2009)

Directed by Jonas Elmer · Comedy, Romance

Starring Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr., J.K. Simmons, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Mike O'Brien, Frances Conroy, Ferron Guerreiro, Barbara James Smith, James Durham, Robert Small, Wayne Nicklas, Hilary Carroll, Nancy Drake, Stewart J. Zully, Marilyn Boyle, Dan Augusta, Jimena Hoyos, Suzanne Coy

IHBM6 IMDb5.7 RT28% MC29 Trakt63% TMDb5.8Not bad

Lucy Hill is an ambitious up-and-coming executive living in Miami. She loves her shoes, her cars, and climbing the corporate ladder. When she is offered a temporary assignment in the middle of nowhere to restructure a manufacturing plant, she jumps at the opportunity, knowing that a big promotion is close at hand. What begins as a straightforward assignment becomes a life-changing experience as Lucy discovers greater meaning in her life and, most unexpectedly, the man of her dreams.

My review · Reviewed 05/30/2025

Is the premise behind this movie a classic rom-com premise? Absolutely. And I think that is where most of the reviewers get tripped up. This movie is decidedly NOT a rom-com. The movie works best as a drama. That said, I completely get the complaints. The movie is a bit schizophrenic as it doesn't always know what it wants to be. In some places dramatic, and in other places a comedy. I could swear that in other scenes the actors were winking at us. And the scene changes... yikes - even a Hallmark movie would blush at some of them. But you know what? It kinda worked for me. I thought the imperfections made the movie strangely charming, and by the end, I was invested in the love story. The love story isn't between the two leads, and that is what people missed.