Writer and co-star Nia Vardalos seems to have a knack for stories like these. Very simple feel-good stories that seems to really get an audience engaged in the story and have a lot of fun with it. 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' for example, was Vardalos's previous success about the simple story of a Greek girl falling in love and getting married. It was like watching a real person's pre-wedding dilemmas and very engaging. You're happy for the characters when things work out and so forth. That's the kind of movie that Connie and Carla is, too. Something where you can really appreciate your characters and want things to work alright cause they're just harmless girls looking for success.
Unfortunately, success comes accidentally, as Connie and Carla, failed showgirls, witness a murder, and hideout in Los Angeles. The story uses the traditional plot of having one gender disguise themselves as another so as not to be recognized much like the comedy classic, 'Some Like it Hot.' But this story, probably inspired by the same, adds a little twist to a conventional story by having them disguise themselves as drag queens. So, essentially, they are women disguised as men dressed as women.
They pose as drag queens so they can perform stage acts at a local bar, and they turn out to be very entertaining, and consequently, very successful, bringing in much business to see the drag queens' musical showcase.
Toni Collette, who plays Carla, seemed to be better at keeping up the charade, however, once she applied all that wild, flashy make-up and remembered to keep her voice deepened most of the time. Nia Vardalos, on the other hand, always just seemed to look like a woman who put on way too much makeup. Not to mention that they never covered up their feminine hands, legs, or necks.
Collette and Vardalos did put on a good performance, nonetheless. You realize they are pretty good singing talents, and they looked like they had a lot of fun making this movie. It is, like 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' a very simple story that just seems to bring out the best in it's well-meaning characters.
David Duchovny may be the only drag on this story as the brother of the girl's best-friend, who is a real drag queen that has to deal with being ostracized by his family and basically everyone else that doesn't know him. This being Los Angeles, I can't believe that so many people would have difficulty in excepting them as gay men or as drag queens. But Duchovny always seems to be a one-dimensional actor much like Ben Affleck. He never really changes emotion, and he seems to be about the same in everything he's in.
And yes, as the reluctant brother of a drag queen carefully trying to make amends, he's supposed to be a very conservative (but no too conservative) type with the fitting occupation of being a financial adviser. He becomes Connie's love interest in the story, but of course, she can't blow her cover as drag queen. I think if they had gotten a more versatile actor, this character could've been much funnier in the movie, as much of the supporting cast does a good job in adding to the laughs. David Duchovny just seems to always be there, but never as an interesting sort.
The ending, too, was kind of stupid. One of those situations where Connie and Carla are performing while their captors find them and want to duke it out stage. The audience isn't sure when the show ends and the real fighting begins. But, it just seemed to end too easily, which seems contradictory when you consider that they've witnessed a murder and the guy who has them followed wants to kill them. Perhaps a bigger action moment would've been fine. It kind of lags and really takes away from the steady pace the story had been going on throughout the movie. In other words, there are very few moments in which there isn't something active going on.
Overall, however, I'd say that if you liked Nia Vardalos's previous movie (aside from the Greek stereotypes), and it is likely that a big portion of those fans are female, then you'd probably enjoy this light-hearted comedy. I'd like to see Vardalos and Collette work together again.
