Watched a truly awful rom-com last night that was so bad it was actually really funny -- "New in Town" (2009) w/ Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr, and JK Simmons. I learned about it because a clip from it was used in my training class yesterday, on how not to manage change at your company. Oh, it's totally awful -- big city hardass career girl gets sent to small town Minnesota by her company to manage reduction procedures at a food packaging plant, but then falls in love with small-town USA and the earnest Jesus-loving country folks, as well as the hot guy in town who she finds out is the union representative as well, and has to try and save the factory from her evil corporate overlords.
Yes, it leans to just about every cliche possible -- clueless ritzy townie with a stick up her ass falls for the local scruffy hottie who is her enemy, while the simple country folk are the salt of the earth and city people suck. The Minnesotans are just a bunch of Minnesota and/or small town cliches. Frances Conroy is entirely wasted. The corporate and factory processes are laughable. Everyone is mostly a stereotype. There is a way to make this work, and you do it by literally playing everything for laughs so that the audience knows even the film world is a parody of some kind, but what you cannot do is take it seriously which unfortunately as a rom-com this film often tries to do... to hilarious (just unintended?) effect. I'm not sure why Zellweger and Connick fall for each other so quickly because they should despise each other, even if he saves her from a snowstorm. The writing is awful, the actors do their best to save the flm.
Still, there is a market for earnest films that actually make you bust a gut laughing, unintentional or not. The main leads are good even if the film is a dog. Zellweger actually has some decent comic timing, esp when drunk -- which are a few of the moments that were actually meant to be funny. I was like, girl, come on...!
You make it better while giving more relevant back story. Like, we get an idea of Lucy's work ethic taught her by her dad (who apparently was blue collar salt of the earth), so maybe that's how she ended up liking New Ulm? Maybe? But you have to dig into it deeper, if that is your track -- like, how did Lucy end up being such a corporate shill, then? How did she lose her soul? Maybe if you convinced me that her staying in Minnesota was a chance to restore her soul and make her father (god rest him) proud, then that maybe is a key character arc. Meanwhile, why did Ted fall for Lucy? We hear the story about his dead wife, but pretty much he's just Lucy's antithesis and we never hear a reason why he would fall for her so hard because he should loathe her. there's no real arc for him, but he's a main character. Maybe he also lost his way after his wife died, and he sees something of her in Lucy that is meaningful? Lucy does help him get his daughter ready for prom, but I'm not convinced he would have, and also there's got to be more than that. The only excuse ever offered to get the two together is pure animal attraction.
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