New In Town

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Starring: US / 97mins (12A).

Renee Zellwegger - romantic comedy: that's all those inclined to see this need to know, and plot (and review) be damned. This one has been pitched as Bridget Jones (unlucky-in-love corporate ladder climber) meets Fargo (snow), but it's really a TV sitcom bar the canned laughter. Or is it really just Sweet Home Alabama in the snow? With SHA writer C. Jay Cox in the mix, it gives the nod to the latter. Zellwegger plays Lucy Hill, a Miami-based executive sent to Minnesota to oversee the downsizing of the local factory that is the lifeblood of the little town of New Ulm. When she's not finding it cold, walking into things or falling over a lot, Lucy tries to keep her feelings for local hunk Ted (Connick Jr), a single father of a 13-year-old girl, at bay. It's your basic fish-out-of-water plot with the highly-strung heroine at odds with the chilled out locals but is soon won over by their innocence (but really by the hunky guy in town). We all know how this one is going to end - you can tell by the poster, never mind the trailer - and maybe that's the comfort in by-the-numbers rom-coms like this; their audiences want, nay demand, predictability, mediocrity and not having to think. Fans of rom-coms will be pleased to know that no thought is required for this - none at all - but might be disappointed with the lack of laughs on show. Maybe the embarrassment-of-falling-down-a-lot-in-front-of-the-hunky-guy is funny. It's not though, and it never will be.