"New in Town", a strained romantic comedy vehicle for Renée Zellweger, follows the time-tested city-mouse/country-mouse formula of "Doc Hollywood" and "Sweet Home Alabama" (no coincidence, since co-scripter C. Jay Cox wrote the latter): big city hotshot is forced to spend time in a small-town and falls for its quaint, bucolic charms. In "Town", Ms. Zellweger plays Lucy Hill, a type-A businesswoman living in Miami. In short order (really, before the credits are over), the film shows her out for a morning jog before jumping in her convertible sports car and attending a high-powered corporate meeting. Right then and there she's chosen for a business trip to New Ulm, Minnesota, where she must evaluate a local manufacturing plant and downsize fifty percent of its workforce. Seeing an opportunity to "make V.P.", Lucy jumps at the chance. But something tells me it won't be so easy...
Despite the fact that she's going to Minnesota in the middle of autumn, Lucy arrives in New Ulm with a selection of high-heels and a single blazer as her warmest outerwear. This lack of preparation is apparently supposed to enforce the notion that Lucy's a city girl, but really it just means she's not savvy enough to check weather.com. The film has a lot of fun with its snow-bound location (Winnipeg, CA, stands in for New Ulm) and seeing the petite Ms. Zellweger (that Bridget Jones weight is history) nearly disappear within a down parka has (or should have) comedic possibilities.
Like Lucy, Mr. Cox' by-the-numbers script, co-written with Ken Rance, takes some time to warm up and never quite finds its footing. Lucy meets beer-drinkin', pick-up-drivin' Ted at a dinner party and they immediately clash. But, wouldn't you know it, he's the local Union rep that Lucy must sweet-talk. This is not an entirely unworkable premise, but the script is peopled with lazy characters (their idea of making Lucy a corporate exec is having her use words like "dialoging" and "mechanization") and obvious plot developments, so for comedy the film depends largely on the inherent humor in those "Fargo" accents (and yes, they are funny for a time).
Comedy doesn't come naturally to Ms. Zellweger, but she's admirably game for the challenge. Whether it's catching her heel on a metal grate, finding herself in the woods with her zipper stuck, or taking an obvious pratfall off a porch, the actress commits to her role. But the smirk Lucy finally develops is as strained as the comedy in the film. It's as if the actress knows this isn't the rom-com she had intended to make.
It's likely that Danish director Jonas Elmer (making his English language feature film directorial debut) wasn't able to coach Ms. Zellweger on the finer points of American comedy. What results is a combination of mugging and broad caricatures. As friend-to-the-working-man Ted, Harry Connick Jr. flannels his way through the role nicely, while Siobhan Fallon and the always-reliable J.K. Simmons do as much as they can in supporting roles.
Regardless of the quality of the film, "New in Town" will likely prove to be a tough sell. In essence, the film is about a corporate executive sent to layoff fifty perfect of a local workforce. That may not be the escapism that audiences are clamoring for right now. Luckily for them, they won't be missing much.
