New in Town

Lucy Hill is a rising corporate executive in Miami who enjoys designer clothes, expensive cars and the prospect of promotion. When her employer offers her a temporary posting to restructure a food-processing plant in a small Minnesota town, she accepts, expecting the assignment to advance her career. The move takes her from Florida warmth to a freezing rural community, where the workers receive her coldly and her cost-cutting plans meet resistance. As she adjusts to local life, she begins to question the job she was sent to do and develops a relationship with Ted Mitchell, a widowed union representative at the plant.

The 2009 American romantic comedy was directed by Jonas Elmer from a screenplay by C. Jay Cox and Ken Rance, and stars Renée Zellweger alongside Harry Connick Jr., J.K. Simmons, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Mike O'Brien and Frances Conroy. Made for about 8 million dollars, it took roughly 29 million dollars worldwide, a solid return relative to its cost. Audience response was moderate: on TMDB it holds 5.8 out of 10 from 525 votes, while a critics' rating of 4.4 out of 10 from 173 reviews is clearly lower, indicating that reviewers were less receptive to the film than general viewers were.