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Review
Connie and Carla

"Connie and Carla" (Universal Pictures)

BY JOHN ANDERSON
Staff Writer

(PG-13). My Big Fat Greek Drag Ball: Two female singers, on the run after witnessing a mob hit, hide out by playing drag queens. Derivative but good-natured, funny, very musical. With Nia Vardalos, Toni Collette, Stephen Spinella, David Duchovny, Debbie Reynolds. Written by Nia Vardalos. Directed by Michael Lembeck. 1:30 (language, adult content, drug content). At area theaters.

In "Victor/Victoria," Julie Andrews became the toast of Paris by masquerading as a drag queen. In "Some Like It Hot," Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis witnessed the St. Valentine's Massacre and hid out by joining an all-girl band.

In "Connie and Carla," Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette, playing the title characters, respectively, witness a mob hit and hide out by playing drag queens. It's like playing the old TV game of Guess That Premise -- you know, "Green Acres" was "The Beverly Hillbillies" in reverse. "The Dating Game" vs. "The Newlywed Game." "The Millionaire" vs. "The Apprentice." It could go on for hours.

But it doesn't really matter in the case of "Connie and Carla," because the film is so consistently funny and musical it doesn't matter whom Vardalos is ripping off. The movie has a fresh, natural goofiness to it (although director Michael Lembeck, a sitcom vet, does give it a TV look). The two stars -- Collette is sensational -- will have you wondering what sex they actually are. And Vardalos, proving that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was no fluke, may be the most consistently funny -- and populist -- comedy writer in the movies.

Her cockeyed characters Connie and Carla have set out since childhood to make it as a singing team -- their cafeteria rendition of "Oklahoma!" to a crowd of heckling schoolmates is painful proof of their determination. When we next meet them, they're performing in an airport lounge to an equally unenthused audience of frequent fliers, but the thing is, they're good. And when they perform their medley, played in a series of tear-away costumes, of songs from "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Cats" and "Yentl," it's a masterpiece of camp.

So it makes perfect sense that they should be hits on the drag circuit -- which is where they end up after they see their boss, Frank (Guy Fauchon), being rubbed out by the evil Rudy (Robert John Burke). Frank has left a kilo of cocaine in Carla's bag, so Rudy doesn't just want them, he wants his drugs as well. Connie and Carla flee to Los Angeles, where they audition for a drag club and bring the lip-synchers to their feet by actually singing.

Given that we're living in the post "Will & Grace"- "Queer Eye"-Barney Frank era, it might seem that a movie whose main message is "gays are people too" is an exercise in redundancy. Or, in the case of this movie, preaching to the converted (I wouldn't expect to see Jerry Falwell at any screenings).

On the other hand, David Duchovny (where's he been?) gives a convincing performance as Connie's love interest, fighting his homophobia all the way. It's the James Garner role from "Victor/Victoria," by the way, just in case anybody's keeping score.