Nothing New about New in Town

Though the general consensus is that, with the United States in the situation it’s in, movies like New in Town are simply a distraction from what is going on in reality, another consensus can be made that the movie, directed by Jonas Elmer (a Danish filmmaker who’s debut in American cinema is New in Town) was not impressive by any stretch.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the movie a fairly solid, if sympathetic, review, stating it was “a gentle, traditional (like, from the last century) romantic comedy” and that she desperately wanted to believe in it like she wants to believe in “American 2.0 being a place where a Suit might help factory workers survive hard times.” But this was the most positive of the reviews.
Ty Burr, of The Boston Globe declares New in Town to be a predictable movie that viewers have undoubtedly seen before in movies like Sweet Home Alabama and others. Burr does, however, give readers a glimmer of hope by saying that Renee Zellewegger, the star of New in Town “gets to uncork a gift for minor slapstick.” Burr does continue on to praise the supporting cast such as a heavily bearded J.K. Simmons, but still comes to the conclusion that New in Town is “groaningly predictable”.
Another commonality among the critiques was the praise of the supporting cast in J.K. Simmons and Siobhan Fallon. Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes this as the high point in the film, along with the theme of downsizing being something that Americans today can relate to. Rickey heavily criticizes the editing of New in Town claiming that it was so choppy it “seemed to have been edited with a pickax”. Rickey dislikes director Elmer’s style, but did mention that it was his first American film. Rickey also mentions the predictability of New in Town.
Called an “aggressively heartwarming romantic comedy” by Stephanie Zacharek of Salmon.com, New in Town is again chastised for being too predictable and stereotypical. Not only does Zacharek rebuke the film for predictability but she completely rips apart the first scene, in which Siobhan Fallon’s character is scrapbooking, begging the film industry never to use scrapbooking as a dramatic device again. She also accuses New in Town of “wielding folkiness like a club” implying that the movie will beat viewers with what should be obvious, the city girl can be swayed by a small town.
Perhaps the most brutally blunt of the reviews was by Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who practically laughs at the attempt this movie makes of being the chick flick competition for the Super Bowl. Travers mentions that Harry Connick, Jr. who plays Zellewegger’s eventual love interest, played a similar role in 2006’s The Pajama Game, alluding once again to the predictability of the film and the feeling that perhaps this has been done before.
New in Town may have been a Danish director’s attempt at utilizing the American economic situation to pull heartstrings, but he does not do it in an original manner. Clearly, according to these critics, Americans may be financially hurting but they will not take for granted what a film is supposed to do, and that is to entertain. A film which has a plot that has already been performed so many times in so many different settings will not will over critics, regardless of the parallelism between the economic situation in the movie and the country.