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Video Review |
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Video Review |
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Last Updated 10/17/02
Email: robitai@our-town.com
“Happy, Texas”
Imagine my surprise when I told my friend that I’d just seen a movie called “Happy, Texas,” and she said, “Oh, yeah. Happy, Texas. The town that never frowns. I had a wreck there once, and here’s the scar to prove it.” In my wildest dreams, I never thought I’d discover a close connection to the real Happy, Texas. Come to find out Happy’s located in Panhandle country, somewhere north of Lubbock off Interstate 87.
I hope the good citizens of Happy took the movie in stride and weren’t offended by its farcical nature. The Happy movie manages to make light of a variety of issues, but it does so without any streak of mean-spiritedness.
My favorite scene appears in the opening sequence. Picture the flat Texas landscape. A prison work crew cleans the long expanse of highway. A trio of particularly seedy characters does their work chained together. Wayne (Steve Zahn), smallest of the crew, picks up prize armadillo road kill and engages in a conversation with the biggest and meanest. Neither likes what the other has to say, but the little one holding the dead dillo wins. Guess why.
So sets in motion circumstances that lead to Wayne Wayne’s (Steve Zahn) and chain-buddy Harry’s (Jeremy Northam) flight to freedom and theft of a Winnebago. The Winnebago happens to belong to two gay pageant professionals headed for Happy. When Wayne and Harry discover there’s a $1,000 fee involved, suddenly the pageant business looks good. Wayne and Harry decide to perpetrate the masquerade and teach the little Fresh-Squeezed finalists their dance routine.
Funny business abounds and romance blossoms on every front. Veteran actor William H. Macy of “Fargo” fame plays Sheriff Chappy Dent who complicates matters when he professes his love for Harry. In the meantime, Harry falls for bank owner Josephine “Joe” (Ally Walker), but must maintain his faux attachment to Wayne. Wayne has a wondering eye of his own as his admiration of pageant director Doreen (Illeana Douglas) grows.
Performances are well-timed and smooth. Steve Zahn takes the prize with his measured, methodical delivery. He transforms mundane circumstances into knee slapping situations.
In spite of playing on a few Texas stereotypes and characters whose drawls may make you cringe, this movie’s still fun. On a good day, a little silliness never hurts. And as they surely say in Happy, a smile is better than a frown.
Rated PG-13 for language,
sexual content and some violence
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