Film Reviews

Connie and Carla

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Dash Mihok
• Details: US / 98 mins / (12PG).

After her remarkable performance in Japanese Story, Toni Collette returns to more conventional territory with this cross dressing comedy, penned in glib strokes by Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Heavily influenced by Some Like it Hot, the plot sees best pals Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Collette) attempting to make their big showbiz breakthrough. During one of their gigs in a Chicago departures lounge, they somehow manage to witness a mob murder and are forced to go on the run. Deciding that the best way to protect their identities is to become drag queens (as you do when you're being pursued by the Mafia) and hide out in West Hollywood, where they wind up getting involved in the affairs of the clientele and the staff.

So broad that it's in danger of shoulder barging the audience out of the way, Connie and Carla is dependent on sources which are infinitely more measured. Based on a concept which is not even on speaking terms with reality, Connie and Carla's overwhelming failing is the reliance on a selection of running gags which are tiresome in their predictability. As usual, Collette gives a game performance, which is all the more impressive since writer Vardalos was obviously intent on giving herself all of the best lines. Not that there are all that many anyway.

Review by Garreth Murphy