New in Town- A Harry Situation

New in Town-A Harry (hairy-get it?) SituationShare
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New in Town ...review-with a few little detours.

I am going to start this out by filling you all in on my years of holding a groupie school girl flame for Harry Connick Junior. If you have been living under a sad Harry-free little rock...Harry Connick Junior is an amazing musician. He is a crooner/band leader- but does his own musical arrangements and is from New Orleans and so logically, he is a jazz pianist as well. He did the soundtrack from When Harry Met Sally, as well as numerous big band and solo cds. He also acts. He has been in a bunch of stuff: Little Man Tate, Memphis Belle, Hope Floats, The Serial Killer Movie I can't Currently Recall the Name of...(Copycat-thanks Imbd!), Independence Day, My Dog Skip, P.S. I Love You, and more. Most recently people know him from his role as Leo on Will and Grace. He also starred on broadway in a sold out run of "The Pajama Game" ( a musical starring Harry! Would have been a highlight in life-but I allowed the lack of available tickets to stand in my way). He is ultra charming, boyishly good looking, goofy- funny and crazy talented. Because of all these brilliant qualities, I try not to miss anything he does. New in Town was no exception.

New in Town stars Harry Connick Junior and Renée Zellweger (sure she needs no introduction-JIC-Chicago, Bridget Jones, Jerry McGuire, etc). Anyway, Renee plays Lucy Hill, an aspiring CEO from Miami who is sent (by default) to New Ulm Minnesota to do some restructuring of a plant there. She takes the move as an opportunity to climb the corporate ladder. Predictably, she is the big city girl who all the small town people detest because she represents Big Business and all its' unfavorable characteristics (i.e. greed, monopolization, etc). Needless to say, there are numerous adjustments to be made. She must run all the major changes she has been sent to make by the conveniently widowed, overly-protective single father and Union Rep, Ted Mitchell (dreamily portrayed by Harry Connick Junior). She insults and later argues with him over a meatloaf dinner on her first day in town before she realizes that he is the Union Rep-this initial meeting helps form some of the "conflict" that later occurs in the film..

So- I am going to stop here...don't want to give the movie away. This movie is not poorly acted. It is however, trite and unremarkable. If you (like me) have to see it NOW due to your unbreakable one-sided commitment to Harry-do so...If not-wait and get it from Red Box for a dollar. Because while there are some funny moments: red underwear antenna, "sexy man-outloud" part , "I didn't realize He (Jesus) was missing) ", a ultra-chic Burberry trench, and a heart warming Christmas carolling scene that brought a tiny tear-the leads don't have believable chemistry (he is WAY too cute for her) the laughs are not that funny and the tempo seems off. Something about it seems half cooked, like the aftermath of whatever attempts I make at cooking dinner.

Facial Hair Harry is nice though. They tried, unsuccessfully to make him small towny and ordinary...but his laughing eyes, winning smile and irrepressible charm make this an impossibility. HE is also a fire man in the movie...Need I say more? (N0, no I don't)

What goes without saying-is that I will continue to be the first in line for whatever Harry does. The only error he made with regards to New in Town is that of poor judgement (choosing an underdeveloped script with poorly developed characters).

Of course I am willing to personally deal with the Union on this matter;0).