DVD review: "New in Town"

There's not much that's really new about this Renée Zellweger romcom, which appears to be stitched together from "Fargo," "Doc Hollywood," "Sweet Home Alabama" and a host of other flicks. But like a quilt made up of pieces scavenged from other hand-made blankets, "New in Town" is warm and comfy despite its frayed edges.

Zellweger plays a corporate climber from Miami who's sent to the tiny frozen Minnesota town of New Ulm to oversee a struggling dairy plant, with an eye to shutting it down. She butts heads with the growly foreman (J.K. Simmons), and is annoyed by the cloying secretary (Siobhan Fallon, in a real scene-stealing performance), who loves Jesus and tapioca -- not necessarily in that order. And there's a hunky local dude (Harry Connick Jr.) for her to hate, then fall for.

Eventually, the cold-hearted executive from the land of sunshine realizes that these small-town folks can warm her spirit, even if her toes are frostbitten from all the oppressive snow and ice outside. There are also some timely themes about regular folks worried about losing their jobs, as greedy corporations look upon their paychecks as line items waiting to be cut in favor of executive bonuses.

Extras are ample, if a bit crimped by the modest participation of the two main stars, Zellweger and Connick. The commentary track work is left to Simmons and Fallon, who are quite a hoot, as well as screenwriters Ken Rance and C. Jay Cox. Simmons reveals his disappointment that critics described him as wearing a fat suit for the part, when he actually gained 40 pounds for what he jokingly calls "my 'Raging Bull' role."

There are also a dozen deleted scenes -- including several with an unexplained subplot involving trolls -- a making-of doc that captures filming in Winnipeg in minus-56 degree weather, and amusing featurettes on tapioca and scrapbooking.

Movie: 3 stars
Extras: 3 stars

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Review: "New in Town"

“New in Town” is a romantic comedy starring Renée Zellweger that seems parceled together from a host of other movies, and yet it works. It’s a sweet, funny chick flick without an ironic bone in its body. It may not hold many surprises, but it’s an entertaining trip as we connect the inevitable dots.

Zellweger plays a corporate climber assigned to oversee massive layoffs at a remote Minnesota dairy plant. Absolutely everyone in New Ulm (“The Most German Town in the USA”) talks like Police Chief Marge Gunderson from “Fargo,” and is just as nice and neighborly and cloying as can be. There’s a hunky fireman for her to butt heads with and then fall for, and the appropriate cockles are warmed as she realizes that small-town folk are just plain better than city slickers.

A lot going on there. You’ve got the accents and setting from “Fargo,” the band of colorful yokels from “Doc Hollywood” who seem ridiculous and then wonderful, and the love/hate relationship from … well, just about every romcom ever made.

There’s also a taste of the neurotic heroine of “Bridget Jones,” which isn’t surprising since Zellwegger was Bridget Jones, and director Jonas Elmer’s most notable credit is 2005’s “Nynne,” which the Internet Movie Database describes as “the Danish ‘Bridget Jones.’” I also detected some of the sensibility of “Sweet Home Alabama,” which was penned by co-screenwriter C. Jay Cox (Ken Rance is the other half of the team).

But the movie “New in Town” most reminded me of was “Other People’s Money,” a little-remembered dark comedy from 1991 that also arrived during a bad economic downturn. This new film strikes a timely chord with its talk of layoffs and liquidations and the greedy golems who sit in corporate headquarters and view the livelihoods of their far-flung employees as line items waiting to be written off.

When Lucy Hill (Zellwegger) first meets the factory workers at Munck Foods and starts talking about innovation and synergy and a whole bunch of other buzzword blather, and the crotchety old foreman (the inestimable J.K. Simmons) interrupts and says they just want to know how many of them are going to lose their jobs, it’s a cheer-out-loud moment.

Of course, Lucy soon drops her tough-girl pose. At first put off by the nosy way her secretary (Siobhan Fallon) ingratiates herself into Lucy’s personal life, before long she’s lapping up the friendly vibes like the tapioca the secretary cooks by the bucketful.

For a romantic comedy, the romance is probably the least successful thing about the movie. Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. share a few nice scenes together, like the one where he takes her hunting and she gets stuck in her overalls trying to pee and inadvertently pulls a Dick Cheney on her would-be beaux. But these bits end up being less than the sum of their parts, so her fateful decision at the end lacks emotional weight.

“New in Town” may not win any awards for originality. But even if it’s not very new, it milks the familiar routines like an old, expert hand.

Three stars out of four