You need at least a passing tolerance for bad musicals—for getting camp value out of the likes of Mame, Jesus Christ Superstar and Oklahoma!—to make it through the very broad Connie and Carla without wincing. Even then it's a struggle.
Nia Vardalos, creator of the irresistibly charming My Big Fat Greek Wedding, reprises her dual screenwriter-actress role here. Only this time, she's stepped into Billy Wilder territory and she's way out of her league. Having Michael Lembeck as director, a former sitcom man responsible for The Santa Clause 2, doesn't help.
Loosely based on Wilder's brilliant Some Like It Hot, and peppered with about 100 withered, old jokes, two hapless musicians, Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette), accidentally witness a gangland slaying and hit the road, disguising themselves, and performing as, members of the opposite sex.
Hiding out in Los Angeles, they go dancing at the Handlebar club, failing to notice the gay clientele. Eventually, they land jobs there as singing drag queens. Fortunately, Connie and Carla really sing, and they're not bad—even if the songs are.
David Duchovny is Jeff, a straight guy at the club, trying to come to terms with his long-lost brother (Stephen Spinella) being a drag queen. Of course, Connie falls for Jeff, who doesn't know she's really a woman.
As the screenwriter, Vardalos fails to evoke much about the life or behavior of drag queens, seen to much better effect in the wonderful The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, so supporting characters like Spinella's come off as flat, whiny and insulting.
We never really grasp Connie and Carla's friendship, either. Their behavior is so inconsistent, we don't know who they are. At times they appear smart, choosing to hide in LA because of its perceived lack of culture. Other times, they fail to grasp even the most obvious aspects of LA and stick out like poorly manicured thumbs, exhibiting pretty dim behavior from characters trying to hide from the mob.
Worse, while Connie is chasing after Jeff, poor Carla simply disappears. It's a shame to cast the lovely, vibrant Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), and then send her to the curb halfway through the movie. It would have been more fun to see her reprise one of the interlopers from Some Like it Hot like Tony Curtis' Shell Oil man, Junior, or Joe E. Brown's love-struck loon, Osgood Fielding III. It's far better to steal from the best than to wallow in this dismal failure.