Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 32 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 32
  2. Negative: 21 out of 32
  1. 38
  2. 0
    Excruciatingly unfunny.
  3. 25
    This crap is supposed to be the chick flick antidote to Super Bowl fever. Ha!
  4. Watching Ms. Zellweger’s joyless performance, you have to wonder what happened to this formerly charming actress who not so long ago seemed on the verge of becoming a softer, more vulnerable Shirley MacLaine.
  5. It's unfunny at best and borderline-amateur at worst, notwithstanding the desperate efforts of Renée Zellweger.
  6. Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
  7. 30
    The laughs and emotional moments are so weak that director Jonas Elmer has no choice but to tweak them with music cues and bland guitar-rock.
  8. The only point of interest in New in Town is sociological. In the current economic climate, this comedy about workers whose livelihood is rescued by a benevolent boss represents the ultimate wish-fulfillment fantasy. Don't spend your hard-earned discretionary cash on it.
  9. A romantic comedy that's neither romantic nor funny.
  10. 25
    As a comic fable for hard times, New in Town is irredeemably moronic.
  11. 30
  12. Seriously, though, watching New in Town left me feeling as pained as Zellweger, playing Lucy Hill, looks.
  13. 38
    The ghastly first half of this romantic comedy -- is as close to unwatchable as any moment in "Bride Wars." The fact that it stars Renée Zellweger just makes it harder to bear.
  14. New in Town might have better played on the less demanding stage of, say, a Lifetime made-for-TV movie.
  15. Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
  16. Strictly old hat -- and a poorly assembled hat at that.
  17. Reviewed by: Bob Mondello
    There's no chemistry between Zellweger and Connick, and there's not a moment in which anything anyone does feels remotely plausible.
  18. Reviewed by: Olivia Putnal
  19. Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    The new comedy is flat, the romance is listless, the pacing is sluggish, and the fish-out-of-water flops -- flip-flop, flip-flop, I can hear it still.
  20. Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 27 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 10
  2. Negative: 5 out of 10
  1. hughie
    Feb 11, 2009
  2. ChadS.
    Feb 4, 2009
    No worldly sophisticate by any stretch of the imagination, Marge Gunderson(Frances McDormand) displayed all the tell-tale signs of living in a small-town, but she was smart, on her own terms, funny voice notwithstanding. The Brainerd detective is the sort of character that's sorely missing in "New in Town", a person who could put the city girl in her place. The waitress tries. At the diner, the waitress ridicules Lucy(Renee Zellweger) for believing that the town of New Ulm celebrates a holiday which pays homage to the gopher. But really, the joke is on the old woman and the diner patrons, because that's the extent of the insularity Lucy surmises these rural folks embody. This company henchwoman makes the Bill Murray character in Harold Ramis' "Groundhog Day" seem congenial. At some point, however, Lucy's condesension will come to a halt, and "voila", the people she despises suddenly becomes the people she cherishes. But the manner in which Lucy goes about her transformation seems even more unearned than what is usually part and parcel of the rom-com formula. She simply gets into a car accident and emerges from the accident, a changed woman. This near-death experience negates the occasion for these Minnesota denizens to prove their mettle as Lucy's equals, and truly earn her respect. Instead of feeling contempt for these "lowly" people, now she pities them. Now she has to save them; her dear, dear underlings. Thanks to an undiagnosed concussion, this professional woman, on the fast track to VP stewardship, can now enjoy the simple things in life, like put on a scarf and join the carollers, as they all hold candles in open-mouthed earnestness around a lighted Christmas tree. For "New in Town" to transcend its initial patronizing attitude towards country life, Blanche Gunderson(Sibohan Fallon) needed to launch her "Tapioca Pudding Boom" without Lucy's marketing know-how. As for Ted(Harry Connick Jr.), he has the steering wheel column to thank for his good fortune. Full Review »
  3. Nov 16, 2013
    New in Town drove me out.
    is barely existent; it just sort of ends when the writers got bored. Full Review »