New in TownMovie Reviews

Poster art for "New in Town."

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Avg. Critic Score: 29 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
13 OK for kids 13+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    A gentle, traditional (like, from the last century) romantic comedy. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Peter Hartlaub

    Zellweger takes an otherwise passable mainstream comedy and all but ruins it with her lack of effort. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Do you like this sort of rom-com? It's a fair example of its type, not good, but competent. Read full review

  • 30
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Strictly old hat -- and a poorly assembled hat at that. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Michael O'Sullivan

    Seriously, though, watching New in Town left me feeling as pained as Zellweger, playing Lucy Hill, looks. Read full review

  • 30
    The New York Times | Stephen Holden

    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. Read full review

  • 30
    Variety | Joe Leydon

    It doesn't help that Zellweger, in an unfortunate attempt to make the aud appreciate her character's uptightness, spends many of the early scenes moving about as stiff as a flagpole in January. Read full review

  • 30
    Los Angeles Times |

    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. Read full review

  • 25
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    This crap is supposed to be the chick flick antidote to Super Bowl fever. Ha! Read full review

  • 25
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    To say that New in Town is the worst movie of this fledgling year is to damn it with faint praise. It may be one of the worst movies of any year. Not content to be merely inane and predictable, it is downright insulting, humorlessly deriding those who choose to live in rural America, labor in factories or have a strong Christian faith. Read full review

View more reviews for New in Town on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 13+ Formulaic romantic comedy has mostly mild content.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this clichéd romantic comedy has some charm but relies heavily on broad stereotypes -- the driven career woman who melts for the right guy, gee-whiz Midwesterners with Fargo accents, etc. -- for its humor. And its message is an unsurprising one about learning to appreciate more of life. Expect some relatively mild swearing (including "s--t"), a few scenes with drinking (including one in which the main character gets drunk), and some kissing and sexual innuendo (mentions of a woman's nipples and thong, for example), but no nudity or violence.
  • Families can talk about whether it's OK to play stereotypes -- whether of people or locations -- for laughs. How does the movie portray women and people from small-town Minnesota? Is it accurate or exaggerated? Can you think of movies with stronger positive female role models? Families can also discuss why so many Hollywood romantic comedies are about opposites attracting. Do you think relationships like that are as frequent (and as successful) in real life?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: The film means well, but it relies heavily on broad stereotypes -- especially those of career women and small-town people in Minnesota. A woman appears to be cold-hearted and judgmental at first but changes over the course of the movie. Characters lie by omission but later feel bad and try to make amends.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: A man is accidentally shot, but it's played for laughs. Some yelling.
  • sex false3 Sex: Some kissing; references to a woman's nipples and thong.
  • language false3 Language: Relatively mild swearing, including "damn," "a--hole," "ass," "oh my God," "hell," "son of a bitch," and a few uses of "s--t."
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Closeups on products like high-heeled shoes and handbags (the Chanel logo is visible on one). Signage for various tbusinesses, etc., including UPS and Munck Foods.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some beer drinking at a bar; a woman gets drunk on wine when her car gets stuck in a snow bank.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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