Connie and Carla : Variations on a Well-Trodden Comedic Scheme
Connie and Carla is Nia Vardalos’s take on Some Like It Hot, with a girl-power twist. Vardalos’ Connie and Toni Collette’s Carla are childhood friends and aspiring dinner-theater performers who witness a mob hit (hmm, Sister Act, anyone?). Carla screams, “Drive, Thelma, drive!” in a different nod to another well-loved film, and on the run now, they head towards Los Angeles, which Vardalos derides as having no dinner theater and no culture (apparently a widely accepted derision regarding the City of Angels). They end up pretending to be gay men in drag (defer to the great Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria) and wowing audiences at The Handlebar after its main drag act leaves for Vegas.
Connie and Carla elicits a few good laughs, basically because Nia Vardalos is quite a witty writer, but her best work to date is still My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Everything she did and will do after that movie, like this film, will find the comparison difficult. Many things about the movie have to be taken at face value because not much of it is logical or makes sense, unlike the comparatively seamless (although haphazard) logic of My Big… However, if you get it behind you that Vardalos and Collette could never be mistaken for drag queens, the movie gets quite interesting—the musical scenes are especially entertaining. It is noteworthy, though, that the movie tackles some relevant issues such as body image (not that Toni Collette could ever be considered fat) and acceptance of alternative lifestyles (hence the subplot about a drag queen’s straight brother accepting his gay brother and his cross-dressing). Vardalos could have used a little more research on her drag queen information, as some of the representations bordered on the stereotypical.
Vardalos can still be cute, but we have seen this act before, in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in an acting job to which it was obvious she gave more commitment. Toni Collette, meanwhile, seems to be giving Vardalos acting lessons, even if Vardalos seemed dead-set on being the star of the show. The seasoned actress is a joy to watch, going from lovesick girlfriend to woman of substance through the course of the movie. Sad to say, it seems that her and David (still-can-be-disarmingly-cute) Duchovny’s talents were not fully utilized in the movie. Vardalos and Duchovny’s chemistry as Connie and Jeff (in a series of meet-cutes) wasn’t particularly great, yet somehow the movie works because the actors seem to all be so enthusiastic about it. (Vardalos, meanwhile, could get some pointers from another comedic screenwriter and actress about writing a great script but staying in the background: Tina Fey, with Mean Girls.)
Stephen Spinella as Robert/Peaches, Jeff’s cross-dressing brother, gives a balanced comedic performance with a hint of poignancy. Boris McGiver, as Tibor, the Russian gangster out to get Connie and Carla, provides an excellent subplot with his effective transformation into a showtunes/dinner theater fan. Meanwhile, Filipinos in particular have to watch out for Alec Mapa playing Lee/N’Cream, one of the drag queens. Parts involving Mapa (one time he shouts out, “Hoy!”) elicited a great deal of laughter from the Filipino audience.
All in all, Connie and Carla was a run of the mill but rightly funny film, not a movie that you would seek out, but a good choice for an evening out with the friends. The fact that you watched it all together makes it worth the ticket price at Power Plant. Otherwise, this would be worth Glorietta 1, at least.
Connie and Carla elicits a few good laughs, basically because Nia Vardalos is quite a witty writer, but her best work to date is still My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Everything she did and will do after that movie, like this film, will find the comparison difficult. Many things about the movie have to be taken at face value because not much of it is logical or makes sense, unlike the comparatively seamless (although haphazard) logic of My Big… However, if you get it behind you that Vardalos and Collette could never be mistaken for drag queens, the movie gets quite interesting—the musical scenes are especially entertaining. It is noteworthy, though, that the movie tackles some relevant issues such as body image (not that Toni Collette could ever be considered fat) and acceptance of alternative lifestyles (hence the subplot about a drag queen’s straight brother accepting his gay brother and his cross-dressing). Vardalos could have used a little more research on her drag queen information, as some of the representations bordered on the stereotypical.
Vardalos can still be cute, but we have seen this act before, in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in an acting job to which it was obvious she gave more commitment. Toni Collette, meanwhile, seems to be giving Vardalos acting lessons, even if Vardalos seemed dead-set on being the star of the show. The seasoned actress is a joy to watch, going from lovesick girlfriend to woman of substance through the course of the movie. Sad to say, it seems that her and David (still-can-be-disarmingly-cute) Duchovny’s talents were not fully utilized in the movie. Vardalos and Duchovny’s chemistry as Connie and Jeff (in a series of meet-cutes) wasn’t particularly great, yet somehow the movie works because the actors seem to all be so enthusiastic about it. (Vardalos, meanwhile, could get some pointers from another comedic screenwriter and actress about writing a great script but staying in the background: Tina Fey, with Mean Girls.)
Stephen Spinella as Robert/Peaches, Jeff’s cross-dressing brother, gives a balanced comedic performance with a hint of poignancy. Boris McGiver, as Tibor, the Russian gangster out to get Connie and Carla, provides an excellent subplot with his effective transformation into a showtunes/dinner theater fan. Meanwhile, Filipinos in particular have to watch out for Alec Mapa playing Lee/N’Cream, one of the drag queens. Parts involving Mapa (one time he shouts out, “Hoy!”) elicited a great deal of laughter from the Filipino audience.
All in all, Connie and Carla was a run of the mill but rightly funny film, not a movie that you would seek out, but a good choice for an evening out with the friends. The fact that you watched it all together makes it worth the ticket price at Power Plant. Otherwise, this would be worth Glorietta 1, at least.
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