Movie Reviews

Happy, Texas

24 Feb 2000

The first thing one notices about Happy, Texas is Jeremy Northam's frightfully good American accent, and how awful it sounds. Trust me, I'm NOT a monarchist, but I think it's a shame when actors like Northam, Kate Beckinsale and Minnie Driver have to lose their wonderful British accents to play Americans. It's happening a lot, perhaps because all the British roles are being taken by Gwyneth Paltrow.

OK, that's a fairly trivial way to start a review. (If British actors can play Yanks, we need only worry that they'll take jobs away from Australians.) But Happy, Texas is not exactly meant to be profound and substantial. Nonetheless, it does have its rewards.

The con-man Harry Sawyer (Northam) and the dopey Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. (Steve Zahn) are small-time crooks, unwittingly escaping from prison in a Fugitive-inspired accident. Stealing a van, they drive to the small town of Happy, Texas, where they find themselves posing as a pair of gay beauty pageant producers, in town to prepare for an annual preteen event, the Little Miss Fresh-Squeezed pageant. And you thought Being John Malkovich sounded silly...

Over the past decade, small-town America has been given a thumping by the movies, from the dark films of the Coen Brothers to the trashy world of Drop Dead Gorgeous. Happy is decidedly different, without a single malicious resident, and even a cheerful acceptance of homosexuality that would be surprising enough in more urbane surroundings. Both Harry and Wayne find themselves falling in love, as you might expect of a phoney agy couple, and there are some extremely funny instants, especially in Zahn's simple-minded pratfalls.

Without being sentimental, it also has its share tender moments. Take Northam's scenes with Ally Walker (he secretly loves her; she think he's gay), or more particularly, William H. Macy's sensitive portrayal of a sheriff with his own secrets. Such moments never move the film to the level of serious drama, but Mark Illsley's smooth, lustreless direction results in a likeable and constantly entertaining film. The screenplay (by Illsley, Ed Stone and Phil Reeves) is one of the funniest American film scripts for some time. You'll forget it in no time, but it's good for a quick fix.