"New in Town" ** (out of four): Strained, lighter-than-air romantic comedy about a corporate executive who falls for the smalltown, snowbound locals she's sent to layoff. Like its heroine, it never warms up.

"New in Town", a strained romantic comedy vehicle for Renée Zellweger, follows the time-tested city-mouse/country-mouse formula of "Doc Hollywood" and "Sweet Home Alabama" (no coincidence, since co-scripter C. Jay Cox wrote the latter): big city hotshot is forced to spend time in a small-town and falls for its quaint, bucolic charms. In "Town", Ms. Zellweger plays Lucy Hill, a type-A businesswoman living in Miami. In short order (really, before the credits are over), the film shows her out for a morning jog before jumping in her convertible sports car and attending a high-powered corporate meeting. Right then and there she's chosen for a business trip to New Ulm, Minnesota, where she must evaluate a local manufacturing plant and downsize fifty percent of its workforce. Seeing an opportunity to "make V.P.", Lucy jumps at the chance. But something tells me it won't be so easy...

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