New In Town
Jonas Elmer


Even the romantic comedy is not spared the economic realities of the times.
The set-up here seems pretty straightforward at first.
Chic city executive Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger, more reined-in from her Bridget Jones cartoon mode) from sunny Miami suddenly finds herself in wintry Minnesota on a work assignment.
The only attractive man for miles around happens to be union rep Ted Mitchell (a charming Harry Connick Jr who seems to have lost that weird sneer he had on TV series Will & Grace).
They get on each other’s nerves when they meet for the first time. And they clash at the factory too since she has been sent to retrench half the workforce.
No prizes for guessing what happens next.
But as much as this is a meet-cute fantasy romance, it is also a proletariat fantasy.
Factory workers who do not own the means of production get a boss who saves them from being kicked out into the cold, not just once, but twice. And then gives power back to them in a scheme to purchase the factory back from greedy capitalists.
A romantic comedy with Marxist undertones? That is certainly new in town.
(ST)