New in Town

This crap is supposed to be the chick flick antidote to Super Bowl fever. Ha! The thudding sounds you hear at New In Town are jokes landing like lead balloons and conking the life out of the actors. Director Jonas Elmer shares the script's anvil touch. Renee Zellweger stars as Lucy Hill, a spike-heeled, spikier-tempered Miami executive terminator assigned to downsize a food-manufacturing plant in snowy Minnesota. Get the contrast? No sooner does Harry Connick, Jr. show up as Ted Mitchell, the union rep for said plant, then you know a romantic thaw is coming. Connick was aces playing a similar character in the 2006 revival of the musical The Pajama Game on Broadway. But this time there are no great songs, just sour notes.