Toni Collette and Nia Vardalos in Connie and Carlos.

For her follow up to the smash My Big Fat Greek Wedding, writer/actress Nia Vardalos has created a movie for the drag queen in all of us. If you combined Some Like It Hot with Victor Victoria, you'd end up with something very close to Connie & Carla. And while it isn't destined to rival that Billy Wilder classic, it is the feel good, and quite funny, comedy of the year so far.

Connie (Vardalos) and Carla (Collette) are wannabe Broadway singers. They spend their nights singing at an airport lounge in Chicago. When they witness their boss being murdered by a couple of gangsters they go on the lam, heading for the last place they think anyone would ever look for them. Fancying themselves cultural elitist, they go to the place with the least amount of culture they can find; Los Angeles. Once there, after they're unable to find any other type of employment, they audition at a nightclub as singers. The catch being that the club is a Drag Club and so Connie and Carla become women pretending to be men dressed as women.

The confusion all this cross dressing causes is where most of the humor comes from, and yes some of it's obvious and a little predictable, but it's performed with such a spirit of fun that the jokes work nonetheless. And both Vardalos and Collette are so likable that you can't help but root for them. The supporting cast of drag queens add to the gaiety. Only David Duchovney, who plays Connie's love interest, is left out of the humor and forced to play it straight.

Where the movie weakens itself is in its political correctness. All the drag queens are perfectly nice and well-adjusted people (not that drag queens can't be nice and well-adjusted) who come across as very two-dimensional. The movie also takes a slightly preachy tone in getting its message across that we should all be accepted for who we are. Nia has forgotten the first rule of narrative; show don't tell.

The soundtrack features a whole host of classic show tunes. Some of the funniest moments come as Connie and Carla perform them on stage, switching costumes in a continuous medley. In another nod to musicals of old, the movie also features a cameo by Debbie Reynolds.

While it certainly doesn't carry the universal appeal of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Everyone has a family and a lot of people get married, but how many of us have hidden from gangsters while pretending to be drag queens?), Connie & Carla does prove that Nia Vardalos isn't a one-hit wonder.

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