Dana Stevens, on the abominable "New in Town":
Maybe it's just my native Zellweger animosity speaking, but I don't know when there's been a romantic-comedy heroine as relentlessly unpleasant as Lucy Hill. Baby Boom and its formulaic offspring may have been retrograde, arguably anti-feminist comedies, but at least they featured women who were struggling to balance career success with human relationships. Lucy Hill is Type A, as in asshole; she picks her high-heeled way through the icy streets of New Ulm as if walking in excrement and treats her secretary, the provincial but kindhearted Blanche Gunderson (Siobhan Fallon Hogan), with such horrific snobbery that it's hard to accept the plot convention by which they eventually become friends. When Lucy's car gets trapped in a snowbank on a remote farm road and Ted happens along to dig her out—thereby saving her from potential death by hypothermia—her first response is not, "Oh my God, thank you," but "Watch the hands, buster." Why is this woman worth saving from the snow, much less building a movie around?I hated this movie for many reasons, but the biggest one of all is that it treats its Minnesota characters like they're functionally retarded. Call it "Fargo" without the violence, or the brilliance.
The movie was filmed in Winipeg which makes it even worse. The originally title was called Chilled in Miami. They should have gone with someone younger than scrunch face.
Posted by: A at January 30, 2009 08:32 PM