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This movie is absolutely hilarious and the perfect escapist remedy for the gloomy economic times that we're living in. I've always liked Rene Zellweger as an actress, but she is also a terrific comedienne. I think that she must have had a great deal of fun on the set and it comes across in her character.

The storyline is a bit like Baby Boom meets Fargo. Minnesotan accents and characteristics are everywhere. Zellweger plays a Miami jet-setting executive, Lucy Hill, who is sent to the Northern town of New Ulm to downsize the plant. The plot-line is predictable, but that's what makes the movie work so well. Everything that you're rooting for in the movie transpires. It's the old formula of a large commercial company taking over and closing down a small rural plant. And as the storyline develops, true to form, Zellweger's Lucy Hill falls in love with the area, as well as the people.

In my opinion, the casting is perfect. J K Simmons plays Stu Kopenhafer, the typical curmudgeon of a maintenance manager who is totally pan-faced throughout the movie. He has some of the best one-liners in the film and his antics are a joy to watch.

Harry Connick Jr plays the local union representative, Ted Mitchell, and ends up becoming Zellweger's romantic partner. The scenes between the two of them whilst hunting in snow-laden forest had me laughing until I cried. The whole audience in the cinema found it absolutely hysterical and it reminded me that the contagious laughter of ordinary people is one of the best things about life.

Siobhan Fallon Hogan steals the movie at times with her small town scrap book making, Jesus loving, factory secretary Blanche Gunderson. She plays opposite Zellweger's city life Lucy Hill wonderfully, and the two of them light up the whole movie.

The small town setting and the snow covered landscapes are wonderful to see, but the best scene in the movie takes place on Christmas Eve. The whole community gathers around the town's Christmas tree singing a Christmas Carol. It is pleasantly played down, so that it evokes a simple, rural hometown nostalgia that many urbanite city dwellers miss in the hustle and bustle of the season.

I also liked the touching relationship between Connick Jr. and his screen daughter Ferron Guerreiro playing Bobbie. Her prom night transition from Daddy's little girl to a lovely young lady, under Zellweger's direction, is very heart-warming.

I would rate the movie four out of five stars for the cast, characters, and side splitting humor.

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