Herald rating: ****
Cast: Steve Zahn, Jeremy Northam, William H. Macy, Illeana Douglas, Ally Walker Director Mark Illsley
Rating: M
Running Time: 100 minutes
Opens: Now showing Rialto, Berkeley cinemas
Review: Russell Baillie
Happy isn't a town you'd want to be gay in. Or so you'd think, given that it's sort of the place where the
word "boy" usually comes with the prefix "good ol'" and "neck" is usually a second syllable to "red."
However, when Harry Sawyer (Northam) and Wayne Wayne Wayne Jun (Zhan) flee a crashed prison-van in Texan tumbleweed country, being gay in Happy is the only escape plan they've got.
The result is a frequently uproarious fish-out-of-water caper comedy that can feel like it's somewhere up the road from Raising Arizona.
Sure, it does rely on some convenient contrivances. Not least the circumstances that get the two cons mistaken for a gay couple (they steal the real pair's camper van but its owners think better of reporting it) which the good folk of Happy have booked to run their "Little Miss Fresh Squeezed" pre-teen Beauty Pageant.
But it comes with such heart and charm, thanks to the performances of its ensemble and their neatly askew characters, as well as the quirky but unshowy delivery by debuting director Illsley.
English actor Northam plays the figuratively straight man of the film's comedic duo, becoming a sounding board to the local bank manager's (Walker) romantic problems, and is soon torn between trying to steal her money or her heart.
As the triple-named Wayne, Zahn undergoes a remarkable but entertaining transformation from macho Southern simpleton to caring, sharing beauty and deportment-teacher to the town's little girls whose big hope is to make that year's state finals.
Meanwhile, Happy's Sheriff Chappy (Macy) has his own problem and figures these two fellas from California just might help straighten things out. Or not.
Add in one particularly silly shoot-out, the funniest line-dancing scene ever committed to celluloid, and one awfully cute song-and-dance number and the result is one sweet screwball of a comedy.
