Connie And Carla (2004)

44% of critics liked it
(120 reviews)
65% of users liked it
(12,671 ratings)

Actress and writer Nia Vardalos, who became an overnight sensation with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, returns to the big screen with this gender-bending comedy. Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are best friends who've shared the same dream ever since they were teenagers -- making a name… More Actress and writer Nia Vardalos, who became an overnight sensation with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, returns to the big screen with this gender-bending comedy. Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are best friends who've shared the same dream ever since they were teenagers -- making a name for themselves in the musical theater. However, after years of treading water on Chicago's dinner theater circuit and playing bottom-of-the-barrel nightclubs, the two are facing middle age with minimal career success. One evening after a performance, Connie and Carla have the misfortune of witnessing the murder of nightclub owner Frank (Michael Roberds) by low-level Mafiosi; the gals are seen by the shooters, and they hit the road in fear for their lives. Connie and Carla end up in Los Angeles, where they struggle to create new identities for themselves. After witnessing a drag review at a nightclub, they realize that even they have more talent than most of the men performing that evening, and they decide to pose as female impersonators in hopes of landing a gig. Connie and Carla's new act is an immediate hit, and soon they're the toast of L.A.'s gay community. But the women discover it's difficult to keep on fooling people into believing they're men, and things become even more complicated when the Mobsters discover that Connie and Carla are in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Connie finds herself falling for Jeff (David Duchovny), a regular guy looking for his cross-dressing brother who can't understand why he's developing a crush on a drag queen. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Directed By: Michael Lembeck
Written By: Nia Vardalos
Genres: Musical & Performing Arts, Comedy

In Theaters: Apr 16, 2004 Wide
On DVD: Aug 17, 2004
Studio: Universal Pictures

Critic Reviews

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper
... just awful.
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com
Isn't really a movie but a blatant girls' night out vehicle.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
It may not be subtle, but, like drag itself, Connie and Carla affords a few corny, if artless, pleasures.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Connie And Carla never manages to rise above the airport-lounge aesthetic of its title characters.
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
Connie and Carla is one of those movies that sneaks up on you, in spite of yourself.
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle
Someone should tell Vardalos this is well-trod territory.
Nell Minow, Common Sense Media
The plot is nothing new; not much here for teens.
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
For audiences who adored "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," Nia Vardalos' follow up movie (she wrote both scripts) will come as a big fat letdown.
Lisa Ann Cockrel, Christianity Today
The movie does offer some genuine guffaws as it trips over itself to be all things to all people.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
muitos espectadores talvez julguem melhor economizar o dinheiro do ingresso do cinema, utilizando-o para comprar o CD do filme.
David Noh, Film Journal International
Vardalos is a much better actress than she is a writer, and the patchy script has a desperate, thrown-together feeling to it, as if she had to scramble to come up with something after Wedding's gargantuan success.
Harry Guerin, RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)
Some like it lukewarm? Well, they're welcome to it.
Anna Smith, Empire Magazine
A good-natured but self-indulgent camp comedy lacking in originality, character and comic timing.
James Christopher, Times [UK]
Full marks for trying a radical change of direction, and nul points for inflicting the ghastly mess on us
Jake Euker, F5 (Wichita, KS)
There's some fun to be had here, but not quite enough, and the film is burdened by its tired message that drag queens are human beings too.
Nev Pierce, BBC
Plays like a bargain basement Some Like It Hot.
Karina Montgomery, Cinerina
If you find meticulously staged, passionately sung anthems about love, beauty, truth, and joy to be tiresome, then don't drop a dime on this film. Otherwise GO!
Martin Scribbs, Mixed Reviews
What Connie and Carla has to teach us about gay people.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
The film's real joy comes in its camp performance pieces, which outrageously poke fun at the guilty pleasures of musical theatre.
Bruce Bennett, Spectrum (St. George, Utah)
"Big Fat Greek Wedding's" huge success was a surprise to me and to Hollywood. It won't have the mass appeal and will make only a fraction of the dough-but this film I get.

Read all 26 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Alice S

Hi-freakin-larious! And who doesn't love a cameo appearance by Debbie Reynolds?
Daniel P

Borrowing liberally from Sister Act, Victor/Victoria, Some Like It Hot and Thelma & Louise amongst others, Connie And Carla was a lot better, in my opinion of course, than the extremely… More
Borrowing liberally from Sister Act, Victor/Victoria, Some Like It Hot and Thelma & Louise amongst others, Connie And Carla was a lot better, in my opinion of course, than the extremely bad press it got in the UK suggested. Two friends trying to make it big, but failing, with their cabaret act (they play to a disinterested crowd of jet-lagged individuals at airport lounges), witness a murder, and are discovered doing so, by members of a local mob. Fearing for their lives, they flee to Los Angeles where they find success with their act by posing as drag queens (which makes them women posing as men dressed as women) at a dwindling gay bar. Inevitably, one of their pair becomes romantically interested in a straight guy, and with their act becoming more successful they risk having their secrets found out and the mob catching up with them. Things start to fall apart a bit around the time of the cameo appearance of a certain someone (whose shtick was served much better in smaller doses in episodes of Will & Grace), and it seems like the story has nowhere else to go. The film ends predictably amid much talk of the meaning of being true to oneself, but the happy ending isn't oversold. Toni Collette is good in pretty much everything she does, and I have to admit that I've probably added an extra half star because of her presence and her fantastic ad-libs. Nia Vardalos is also less punchable here than she was in My Big Fat Greek Weeding, and David Duchovny thankfully keeps it low key as the love interest. The laughs are hit and miss at times, but as a whole the film is worth a watch and passes the time quite nicely.
William G

A weird kind of tolerable.
Sylvester K

I don't know what to say here, it's not awfully bad or superbly good. I like the story but the acting is so bad, not from Nia or Toni off course. It's campy fun but too campy.
Robert F

Maybe I'm enough of a sucker for Toni Collette or maybe it was my forgiving approach to the concept, but it provided me enough chuckles to call it entertainment.
Ina S

Delicously campy fun. Predictable yes, but also good-hearted and highly entertaining. Toni Collette and Nia Vardalos are highly convincing drag queens in their hilarious, over-the-top performance.
Leo L

Love this movie. Very funny!
FanGirl B

A fun flim.

Read all 8 featured audience ratings

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Cast

Nia Vardalos
as Connie
Toni Collette
as Carla
David Duchovny
as Jeff
Stephen Spinella
as Robert/Peaches
Alec Mapa
as Lee/N'Cream
Christopher Logan
as Brian/Banana
Robert Kaiser
as Paul
Ian Gomez
as Stanley
Nick Sandow
as Al
Dash Mihok
as Mikey
Robert John Burke
as Rudy
Boris McGiver
as Tibor
Mike Roberds
as Frank
Babs Chula
as Carla's Mom
Linda Darlow
as Connie's Mom
Veena Sood
as Mrs. Morse
Gary Jones
as Bartender
Don Ackerman
as Super Fey Guy
Fred Keating
as Man in Airport
Adam Harrington
as Cute Guy
Kristi Angus
as Woman in Crowd
Nicola Crosbie
as Reporter
Guy Fauchon
as Another Super Fey Guy
Danielle Woodman
as Young Connie
Morris Bart & Kimberly C. Anderson
as Man in Airport
Charles Payne
as Hollywood Policeman
Kristina Copeland
as Botox Woman
Fiona Hogan
as Natasha
Krista Rae
as Mary
D. Neil Mark
as Crooked Cop
June B. Wilde
as Woman in Airport
Carl McDonald
as Dressing Room Guy
Brittney Wilson
as Young Carla
Douglas Baird
as Cameraman
Paddy Ma
as Groove Thing Queen
Ryf Van Rij
as Cute Guy
Jay Williams
as Groove Thing Queen
Todd Oberg
as Groove Thing Queen
Chelah Horsdal
as Botox's Friend
Elaine Kliner
as Snoring Woman in Airport
Douglas McLeod
as Bass Player
Stephen Cottrill
as Guitar Player
Lloyd Nicholson
as Pianist
Gordon Roberts
as Drummer
Chris Logan

See more (45)

Connie And Carla (2004)

Critic Reviews

Featured Audience Ratings

Alice S

Daniel P

William G

Sylvester K

Robert F

Ina S

Leo L

FanGirl B

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