This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.

The mostly inoffensive but ultimately completely enslaved to formula New in Town is destined to feel like a really bad case of cinematic déjà vu. It’s Doc Hollywood meets Fargo — minus the wood chipper.

Lucy Hill (Renée Zellweger) isn’t climbing so much as blasting up the corporate ladder at the swank headquarters of a Miami food conglomerate. When her boss asks for someone to oversee the dismemberment of one of the company’s underperforming plants, the ambitious Lucy volunteers, knowing that a job well done guarantees a big promotion. There’s just one problem: the plant is in snowbound New Ulm. It’s just Minnesota, but for Lucy, it might as well be Mars.

Lucy doesn’t understand the “simple” ways of the rubes of New Ulm and they “sure as shootin’” don’t know what to make of her. Slowly but surely Lucy’s icy exterior begins to thaw (the handsome local union rep played by Harry Connick Jr. may have something to do with that) and she begins to see the plant for what it truly is — populated with ordinary people trying their hardest just to get by. As Lucy begins reassessing her big city priorities, she sets out on a crusade to save the plant and everyone in it, even if it means losing her own job.

New in Town is a classic fish out of water story — if by classic you mean a story told and retold so many times it is now as thin as onionskin paper. The film enjoys poking fun at stereotypes, particularly those of frostbitten Minnesotans, but only rarely do those stereotypes cut both ways.

Zellweger actually makes for a pretty convincing comedienne, and while she is given nothing original to do, she still manages to do it in her usual, plucky style. Connick Jr., a long way from his New Orleans roots, might seem an odd choice as Zellweger’s foil/love interest, but the couple’s chemistry is actually not one of the things New in Town fumbles. While this might officially be classified a romantic comedy, the love story is actually more of a sub plot, subordinate to jokes about ice fishing and tapioca pudding.

While there are several genuine laugh out loud moments, they are mostly lost in a sea of caricatures, clichéd eccentricities, slapstick spills, “you gotcha’s” and “okey-doke’s.” New in Town may seem like a Capra-esque fable for our economically depressed time, but chances are this exceedingly familiar and instantly forgettable romantic comedy will just remind you of a dozen other films that tackled the same subject matter, only better.

© Copyright 2009 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.