11 Feb 2009

New In Town

Director: Jonas Elmer

Starring: Renee Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr., J.K. Simmons, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Frances Conroy, Mike O'Brien, Rashida Jones

Release: 2009-02-11

Here's another romantic comedy that's wrong for its times. It deals with - of all things - job losses and retrenchment. Yeah, that'll surely pull in the crowds….

Renee Zellweger plays a high-powered executive from Miami who has to go to a little town in Minnesota to downsize a food-packaging plant. Her plant's employees, instead of being worried about losing their jobs, pull pranks on her. She, instead of getting annoyed, starts to like them.

Soon she grows to love the town and its people, from the weather to their accent to the scruffy union representative (Harry Connick Jr, who really should go back to singing). Not surprisingly, she ends up trying to save their jobs instead…

If you've watched more than 10 romantic comedies, you don't need to watch New In Town (but Old In Everything Else). Especially since Renee Zellweger is getting to be damn annoying with those pinched expressions and look-at-me-aren't-I-cute? pouts.