Half laughs and a royal treat

Cross-dressing will always be in the movies – locally and especially in Hollywood. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon disguise themselves as women who join an all-girl band in order to escape a band of gangsters out to silence them in the classic comedy Some Like It Hot.

In Tootsie, Dustin Hoffmann – as down-on-his-luck actor Michael Dorsey – also dons a woman’s dress in a desperate attempt to land a job in a TV soap opera where he makes it big in Tootsie.

At the other end of the clothesline, Barbra Streisand wears pants so that she may be able to get herself an education in the period musical Yentl.

Ms. Goody-Two Shoes Julie Andrews also has her share of cross-dressing as an out-of-work singer posing as a gay Polish count in Victor/Victoria.

Connie and Carla, another cross-dressing comedy still showing in Metro Manila theaters, is a cross between Some Like It Hot and Victor/Victoria because the lead stars Nia Vardalos (who again writes the script like she did in the big hit My Greek Fat Wedding) and Toni Collette also try to hide from a syndicate out to kill them (the plot of Some Like It Hot) and have to pretend to be gay as a matter of survival – like Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria..

The result, unfortunately, is half/half too and the viewer’s level of appreciation of this film is neither here nor there.

What make the film partly entertaining are the melodious songs and the colorful production numbers. (Connie and Carla begin as a singing duo at an airport lounge who end up as big-time performers in LA night spot frequented mostly by drag queens). But how else can you fail when your musical numbers are culled from Mame, Jesus Christ Superstar and other Broadway hits?

The problem with Connie and Carla stems from the mediocre writing. Maybe Nia Vardalos got too preoccupied with her onscreen performance (which is also neither here nor there because it is Toni Collette who shines in the movie) that she totally forgot about mending what looks like haphazardly written areas in the script.

The twists and turns in the climax of Connie and Carla, I swear – and I am not exaggerating – are just several notches better developed than the last few frames of the eternally-maligned Leni Santos - Rey "PJ" Abellana movie The Punks. You know – there is a big performance, but in the middle of it, the bad guys come in and spoil the lavish preparation. Given the very Pinoy ending, Max Alvarado – if he were still alive – would have been perfect as the bad guy in the climactic scenes of Connie and Carla (Could have been Paquito Diaz’s big Hollywood break had he auditioned for the part.).

Minus those scenes toward the ending, however, Connie and Carla isn’t really such a terrible piece of entertainment fare. Somehow you get a few half laughs here and there.

But if you are caught in a crossroad between watching this cross-dressing comedy and another Hollywood film, I suggest you take the route toward Princess Diaries 2

Believe me, Princess Diaries 2 is one of the few movie sequels that fare better than the original film version.

Although the sequel doesn’t exactly provide a comprehensive background of what happens in part one, the viewer who missed the first installment would still be able to catch up and enjoy the generous servings of delightful scenes in Princess Diaries 2.

Here in Part 2, we see a more mature Mia (Anne Hathaway) all set to take over the crown of her grandmother, Queen Clarisse (Julie Andrews) of the fictional country of Genovia.

The ascent to the throne however, is made complicated by a decree that disallows single women from becoming queen. The trouble is, Mia only has 30 days to find her groom or she loses her right to the crown.

The beauty of Princess Diaries 2 is that it deviates from the usual cardboard fairy tale characters that we have seen in the gallery of most saccharine Walt Disney movies.

In Princess Diaries 2, Anne Hathaway as Princess Mia is a thinking modern woman attuned to her times. Although she is of royal lineage, she is far from being perfect and the viewer sympathizes with her and understands her predicament.

Anne Hathaway I have to say delivers a fine job – a royal performance – here in Princess Diaries 2. But the most engaging presence is still that of Julie Andrews whose magnificence is felt all over the screen in this modern fairy tale.

I don’t remember having very fond memories of the first Princess Diaries. Part 2, however, is definitely a royal treat.