MOVIE REVIEW - New In Town

New In Town, the new Renee Zellweger/Harry Connick Jr. romantic comedy hit the box office with a tremendous thud this weekend, and deservedly so. This movie has a few problems, the main one being, too much "Z" and not enough "C Jr."

NIT is the story of a powerful Miami business woman (Zellweger) who is trying to become a Vice President in this major food conglomerate. (Zellweger as a high power business woman? Boy, that's believable isn't it?) She volunteers to go to rural Minnesota to help spearhead one of their manufacturing plants as they convert over to automation and eliminate a bunch of jobs. She has to live there for a number of months, and learn the ways of the quirky Minnesotans. This is supposed to be the funny part.

She meets Ted (Connick Jr.) and of course he's on the opposite end. He's a blue collar, slob of sorts. He is also the head of the local union that represents all the people in the plant. He drives a truck, listens to country music, in other words, light years from her. And guess what? They fall in love. No need for Sominex tonight, this will make you snooze. The old and tired fancy girl and slobby guy routine. That's the romantic part.

NIT looks like a fun movie at first glance, but it's not. This movie is so awkward at times it borders on the uncomfortable. It's not written, or acted well, and is no where near original. Zellweger falls flat on her face. She was exceptionally funny in the Bridgette Jones movies, and should get kudos there. But here? Too much of her NOT being funny, or attractive, or likeable, endearing, or anything. "Open up the bomb bay doors....it's bombs away!." Connick Jr, is certainly likeable enough, but there's too little of him, and even his major league charm can't save NIT from first circling the drain, and then going down it at 500 mph.

Finally, the lampooning of the accents and quirkiness of the folks from Minnesota has been done to death since the terrific Fargo in the 1990's. And they did it great! We've seen it all before now, and even that's old and tired.

New In Town. Looks fun...by and large it's not. You can do better for your money in the theater next door, and I don't even know what's playing there.