'New In Town' (PG)(out of four)

There's nothing new about "New In Town." Actually, we saw much of the same plot in "Sweet Home Alabama."

In fact, Renee Zellweger and Reese Witherspoon are almost interchangeable. In the 2002 movie "Alabama," Witherspoon was an up-and-coming fashion designer in New York. In the 2009 "Town," Zellweger is an up-and-coming corporate executive in Miami.

Both play cute in a fish-out-of -water story. Witherspoon heads South to clean up a messy divorce, while Zellweger heads to Minnesota to tend to a factory that is becoming a burden for a large corporation.

But before you say "been there, done that, " there are a few reasons to stick around for "New In Town."

First of all, there's Zellweger. We watched her grow up into a leading lady on screen from the first time she said "You had me at hello" as Jerry Maguire's girl in the 1996 movie.

Since then she's taken on song and dance roles ("Chicago"), Civil War tales ("Cold Mountain"), British roles ("Bridget Jones's Diary"), and even the biography of a literary figure ("Beatrix Potter"). Here she just gets to have fun in a role that seems so close to her true self, at times you'll hear a hint of her Southern accent from her personal roots of growing up in Katy, Texas.

Zellweger genuinely looks like she's having fun in this film the movie's shortfalls, and there are many.

The script sends Zellweger as Lucy Hill to a small town named New Ulm, Minn. For those who aren't aware, New Ulm is actually a real town. Having only been to Minneapolis and St. Paul, and never to New Ulm, I'm not sure if characters such as the folks we meet in "New In Town" exist, or if the topic of kitchen table conversation really is scrapbooking, tapioca pudding and Jesus.

It's doubtful since everything in "New In Town" is taken to the Nth degree, including some fairly over-the-top "Fargo" accents on these folks, don't-cha know. They all sound like they've gone to the Sarah Palin school of diction.

Siobhan Fallon Hogan plays Blanche Gunderson (any relation to "Fargo's" Marge Gunderson, perhaps?), a Christmas sweater-wearing secretary-executive assistant who is the first to melt the ice with Lucy. Hogan steals scenes away from Zellweger left and right, but since she's written as such a stereotype -- like all the Minnesotans in "New In Town" -- it's difficult to take her seriously.

We don't get any singing from Harry Connick Jr., who just acts in this film. He plays low-key widower Ted Mitchell, facing father crises as dad to a 'tween daughter.

No, you will not be surprised when the sophisticated Miami transplant is called upon to give the girl a makeover for the prom. Yet Connick and Zellweger really click on screen, and their chemistry makes up for some fairly hokey moments, including a scene where corporate shark Lucy is starting to lighten up to this whole small town thing, smiling gleefully around a Christmas tree as she catches Ted's eye.

In addition to the myriad of small town jokes, there's also plenty of freezing weather pokes tossed in. It wasn't much of a joke to the cast who filmed in midwinter in Winnipeg, Canada, the stand-in for New Ulm.

For all its flaws and drawbacks, there's a happy ending to this story, and isn't that just what we need, especially in these times.