If you like show tunes, you'll love Connie & Carla. Nia Vardalos, who wrote My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is back with a new twist on an old classic, Some Like It Hot. 

Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Australian actress Toni Collette, whom you may remember as the mom from The Sixth Sense) are best friends who entertain weary travelers by performing perky show tunes at an airport lounge outside of Chicago. When the two witness a murder they take off for Los Angeles, a place - they reason - so void of culture, and dinner theater, that no one would ever think of looking for them there. They wind up in that hub of alternative culture known as West LA, where they audition for a drag queen review. In true, Some Like It Hot fashion the women pretend to be men pretending to be drag queens. Naturally, they find the success that eluded them in the airport lounge, becoming overnight sensations. Connie even falls for a straight guy, Jeff (David Duchovny), who's trying to reconnect with his estranged drag queen brother Robert (Stephen Spinella).

The musical numbers are the highlight of the movie. "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "What I Did for Love," "Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair," "I'm Just A Girl Who Can't Say No," it's obvious that Vardalos loves a good musical. Carla and Connie may be a bit naïve but their characters are genuinely likable in a Laverne & Shirley kind of way. You really want them to succeed. 

The message is fairly obvious: We should love others and ourselves for who we are. That message is reinforced in the subplot involving Duchovny and Spinella. Jeff really does want a relationship with his older brother but is still trying to come to grips with, not only the gay thing, but the drag queen thing as well. Duchovny who was so deadpan and emotionless in The X-Files gets a chance to be sweet and charming. I'd like to see him in more romantic comedies. Spinella was believable as a gay man who was so hurt by his family's rejection that he is reluctant to even consider a real relationship with his brother.

The plot may be predictable but the characters are charming and the musical numbers are great. It's a light, cute and funny film. The audience I saw it with laughed out loud and one or two even sang along!

This is an excellent movie for a Girls Night Out. Unless your man is into show tunes (and ladies, that could be a red flag), I doubt he'd be interested in this one. Connie & Carla is definitely a feel good movie and I left the theater feeling good. And that is worth the price of admission.