Not Much New in This Town

Fish-out-of-water romantic comedy New In Town takes an old recipe and follows it to the letter, say critics. That's not a good thing. Renee Zellweger stars as a cynical Miami exec sent to cut jobs in an icy Minnesota hamlet full of warm-hearted folks, with results you can see coming "all the way from Duluth," John Anderson writes in Newsday.

Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr., who plays a hunky union rep, do their best to add warmth to their poorly drawn characters but "fail to set off convincing sparks," Michael Rechtshaffen writes at the Hollywood Reporter. "You've seen New In Town before, and you've seen it done better," writes Ty Burr at the Boston Globe. "Still, it's a sweet-hearted bit of anemia, pleasant and obvious, and there are a few honest laughs to it." (More Renee Zellweger stories.)