New In Town

New in Town (Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr.) – She is one of Hollywood’s best, well-paid and decorated young actresses.  She made her mark in the wonderful movie, Jerry McGuire, where she burst onto the movie screen opposite Tom Cruise.  After a few light films, opposite actors like Jim Carrey, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, she turned to serious films like Cold Mountain (for which she won an Academy Award), Miss Potter (with Ewan McGregor), Cinderella Man (with Russell Crowe) and last year’s outstanding Appaloosa (with Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, and Jeremy Irons).  She was nominated for her role as Roxie Hart in Best Picture Chicago, never having danced or sung before. That’s quite a resume.  She turned back to period comedy with George Clooney in Leatherheads, a box office disappointment before showing up here in a low-budget chick flick opposite Harry Connick, Jr.  She plays a rising Miami-based Fortune 500 executive who is sent to retool and downsize a plant in New Ulm, Minnesota.  So this starts as a “fish out of water” comedy fresh with stereotyped hicks from southeast Minnesota and develops all the way to … well … a “fish out of water” chick flick with a story line right out of Gung Ho.  I wanted to hate this movie but, being a sucker for a formula chick flick storyline, I didn’t.  Instead, I just wondered why the studio didn’t promote this star-laden film one bit and didn’t even produce a trailer (I go to a lot of movies and never saw one).  I figure that means that the film tested horribly.  While I wouldn’t give this movie a hearty endorsement, it isn’t a waste of time either.