Welcome to New Ulm
Swift shot: Very funny film; great romantic comedy for a Valentine’s Day date. I was pleasantly surprised by this one; I was expecting the fish-out-of-water bit to get old, but Danish Director Jonas Elmer pulled it off nicely with a balance of minor drama and character comedy. Character actor, J.K. Simmons is always masterful in these everyday Joe roles – with a caustic, yet lovable edge (like a polar bear with a sledge-hammer) he managed to steal every scene he was a part of as Stu Kopenhafer.
This was almost solely a character comedy with little need of dramatic dialog to move the action, yet the main characters were almost an after-thought to the real players who made up New Ulm. I found myself wondering, what was wrong with the old Ulm, I mean how many Ulms does one planet require? Pasted into each yokel scene, like the scrappers they were portraying, were Siobhan Fallon, Frances Conroy, and Hilary Carroll. Each lady brought class and merriment to their roles with Siobhan having a stand-out performance as the tapioca-pushing Blanche Gunderson. If you aren’t rooting for her, you have no soul.
Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) arrives to New Ulm, Minnesota for one cruel purpose, to cut manpower and push a last desperate new product line for the Munck corporation, not so lovingly referred to as the Munckies by her local factory workers. Incidentally, don’t you hate people with accents in their name? Lucy finds herself predictably out of her element and anyone who has ever experienced really freezing cold temperatures will get a kick out of some of the light-hearted thermomedy [I just copyrighted that Rolling Stone]. Several times I found myself chuckling out loud as I relived my first “summer” in Norway where we were sleeves up in 56 degree weather, which only my jarhead buddies will understand, sorry civilian populace. Watching Lucy navigate the freezing temperatures both mentally and physically is a real titillating treat.
Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr.) is used to the local weather, as he reveals and develops his character for the audience, you find yourself knowing so much more about Ted than Lucy. That would be my only solid criticism of this film, I didn’t really get to know one character in particular, which is ok for a character piece with lots of different unique personalities. Still, I wanted to know more about Lucy and her past, and more about Ted’s past. With this comedy though, you don’t have to think too hard, leave that for the stuffy CEOs polishing their golf balls as the factory-workers freeze their patooties off!
I really liked Director Jonas Elmer’s use of shoes to juxtapose the locals with Lucy throughout, with her trendy spiked heels signaling her every move and important encounter in New Ulm. It reminded me of something my director always said when I was singing, the first thing people see on stage is your shoes. The dynamic cinematography will remind you of Fargo, in fact you might call this one Fargo meets Gung-Ho. And the messages of New in Town are poignant and punctual given the current financial woes we are almost all experiencing globally. Hang in there and don’t fret, during the Great Depression the one industry that didn’t falter a lick was cinema, so go stimulate the economy this week and check out New in Town, while it is still – well, new in town – you betcha!
