At the Movies with Fatwayne

As I sit here writing this review I get chilly all over again just thinking of New Ulm, Minnesota where the story is set. Talk about cold! One of the funny moments in the film comes when Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) steps out of the airport door and when hit by the frigid wind exclaims “Holy mother …” I’m not sure exactly what she said but the shock on her face was priceless.

Lucy is a Miami corporate big-shot who aspires to be a VP in the company for which she works and is living the fast paced life required to attain such a lofty goal. When a problem arises with one of the corporation’s factories, a troubleshooter needs to go set things straight. No one wants to volunteer and so Lucy, looking to earn points with her boss, agrees to go. Knowing very little about the small town of New Ulm or its climate, she is ill prepared for the small town people or the harsh winter environment.

Despite the warm initial acceptance by the townies, Lucy manages to keep her hard nosed veneer intact thus alienating most of the them. Things are not going good for Lucy at the plant either and she manages to insult the union representative, Ted Mitchell who is played by Harry Connick, Jr.

Eventually the employees start to warm up to Lucy and she begins to see the personal side of her workers and that they are not just numbers on a sheet but hard working folks with feelings and families to support. Just about this time the ‘powers that be’ decide to close down the plant putting Lucy in a very bad position and one in which she has no heart for.

Our feisty lady has no intention of letting her new friends down or for that matter her new romantic interest, Ted and so off she goes to Miami to plead their case. Things in romantic/comedies usually tend to resolve themselves for the best but not always in the ways we expect them to.

We get the sense that we have seen all of this before with the clueless executive, corny townspeople and handsome love interest. It is still fun to watch them all interact and eventually come together with a happy ending sure to send us home smiling.

Rated  – PG 13 -

Fatwayne’s rating  – -