CS Daily Archive > Weekend Read > 04/16/04

Broad Comedy Rarely Drags

By Sarah Kuhn

This campy, sequin-swathed concept is hardly original and the resulting themes and characters are just this side of cartoony. But there's something willfully winning about Connie and Carla, a genial pair of enthusiastic performers.

Connie and Carla

Nia Vardalos

Connie (Nia Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are gleefully over-the-top airport lounge singers who love big hair, musicals, and Debbie Reynolds. After the two gals witness a mob hit, they decide that they'd best go into hiding, and head cross-country to Los Angeles. In an "only in the movies" twist that steals a few pages from Some Like it Hot, the duo finds work by spackling on glittery make-up and posing as drag queens at a West Hollywood club. Their act is, of course, a huge hit, but things get complicated when Connie falls for the straight brother of one of her fellow queens. And as the girls' act gain notoriety, they worry that it's only a matter of time before the mob tracks them down.

The story here is a fairly paint-by-numbers affair, but Connie and Carla are enjoyably plucky heroines with boundless enthusiasm. The best bits of the film focus on their act, energetic renditions of various Broadway standards. The duo camps it up, but Vardalos doesn't position their act as a joke -- there's a sincerity there that makes the resulting cheese all the more winning.

Vardalos also wants to impart a general sense of "You go, girl!" empowerment -- Connie and Carla can only find themselves by pretending to be what they're not, and their drag sermons about things like body image inspire their fellow queens and audiences. This message is delivered in a broad, almost cartoony way, but it's so genial that it's hard not to get swept along.

In general, the picture also works as a female buddy comedy because Connie and Carla share a decent chemistry. The affable, scheming Connie nicely balances sweet, ditzy Carla, and the two have some nice moments of loopy fun together. Unfortunately, Vardalos upsets the balance by giving Connie a love interest sub-plot, while Carla has to settle for reacting to said sub-plot. As one half of the movie's titular duo, Carla should get equal time. As for the supporting characters, they -- like the extended family in Vardalos' My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- are essentially cartoons notable for one defining trait.

The lines the characters deliver are, like the rest of the film, mostly fun, somewhat broad, and occasionally sparkling. The two leads occasionally spit out enjoyably off-kilter one-liners, but much of the dialogue is made up of Big Statements suitable for printing on a T-shirt ("Chins up, boobs out! It's showtime!"). But hey, that's not necessarily a bad thing -- in fact, it fits in pretty perfectly with the movie's silly sensibility.

Connie and Carla's goofy onstage antics will most likely win you over, but you may find yourself wishing for more substance -- and a better sub-plot for Carla.

Connie and Carla
Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13; 98 min.

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Sarah Kuhn is a freelance writer living in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in such fine publications as Backstage West, Cinescape and IGN.com. For more of her geekish musings, check out Entertainment Geekly.

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