Wow. What can I say? All I could think of through this whole messy film was: It takes some feat of directing to make Toni Collette look as bad as she does in Connie and Carla. The first half of the film is an hysterical pastiche of Some Like it Hot, possessing none of that film's wit and warmth, but much more than its quota of shrieking slapstick which is merely irritating. I love musicals, but I could barely watch the drag revue stuff because the film had alienated me so badly. Everything's done at top speed with the minimum of subtlety and the maximum of ham. Scenes are choppy and by rote, seemingly unconnected to what's come before or what follows. The only relief comes from David Duchovny (in the tentative Marilyn Monroe role) as the straight brother of a drag queen who reluctantly starts to enjoy hanging out with Nia Vardalos (as a man). Duchovny alone refuses to buy into the hysteria around him and brings the only note of honesty and reality to the movie. Thank god for his oasis of calm in an otherwise overwrought film. The scene where he gets a manicure from Vardalos is appealing and funny and gives an insight into how the rest of the movie could have played out in better hands. But Duchovny is swimming against a serious tide of manic over-acting and finally even he flounders in the wholly predictable finale which is tired and smacks of convenience and a lack of imagination.
Review of Connie and Carla
