A body-sculpted Renee Zellweger portrays city alpha-chick Lucy Hill, an executive from Miami who volunteers to oversee the downsizing of a manufacturing plant in icy Minnesota.
The locals despise her from the start, but she soon meets a charming rube of a union rep (Harry Connick Jr). They fall in hate and then in love, before setting out to save the plant.
Recalling the shmaltziest bits of similar city-slicker-meetsbumpkin romcoms like Doc Hollywood and Sweet Home Alabama, New In Town is
pure Valentine’s Day drivel.
Zellweger is capable of fathomless charm, but there are scant signs of that here.
Ken McIntyre