Tagline: When you follow your dream, there’s no telling what you’ll become.
Connie and Carla movie storyline. Connie (Nia Vardalos) and Carla (Toni Collette) are two small-town girls whose dreams of stardom have taken them nowhere. From their debut in a school cafeteria to their current gig slinging drinks and belting out tunes at a Midwestern airport lounge, the singing and dancing duo simply refuse to let the less-than-enthusiastic crowd response dampen their show biz drive. For Connie and Carla, everything’s coming up roses, naysaying boyfriends and snoring audience members notwithstanding.
The girls lose one of their few supporters when their boss Frank ends up on the wrong end of a criminal deal — a scene they unfortunately happen to witness. Quicker than a fast change in the second act, Connie and Carla pack up their battered dreams and extensive assortment of wigs and costumes and hit the road, running for their lives.
Connie and Carla is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Michael Lembeck and starring Nia Vardalos, Toni Collette, David Duchovny, Stephen Spinella, Dash Mihok, Alec Mapa, Christopher Logan, Ian Gomez, Robert John Burke, Veena Sood and Debbie Reynolds. The screenplay was written by Vardalos. The film was shot in Vancouver and featured a number of local drag queens.
The film had a budget of $27 million, and grossed $8,085,771 domestically, and $3,255,245 in foreign release, making $11,341,016 worldwide. The film grossed $3,254,940 during its opening weekend, opening at number 13 in the 4/16-18 weekend box office. The film has been released on DVD and incorrectly has the runtime at 1 hour, 48 minutes. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 44% critic score and a 71% audience score.
About the Production
Connie and Carla is the comedy that proves if you follow your dream, there’s no telling what you’ll become. Nia Vardalos, the Oscar-nominated writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest grossing romantic comedy and independent film of all time and the fifth highest grossing film of 2002, follows up that smash hit with the new comedy Connie and Carla, again in double roles as both screenwriter and star (as well as executive-producing).
Starring alongside Vardalos is Academy Award and Tony nominee Toni Collette (About a Boy, The Sixth Sense), both of whom are joined by a multifaceted cast that includes Stephen Spinella (Tony winner for Broadway’s Angels in America), Dash Mihok (Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet), Alec Mapa (Broadway’s M. Butterfly) and David Duchovny (Evolution, The X Files).
“When My Big Fat Greek Wedding started getting noticed,” Nia Vardalos recalls, “people began knocking on my door asking, ‘What else do you have?’ Of course, I said, ‘Hey, I have this script in my drawer about two women who hide out as drag queens.’”
Turns out that “script in my drawer” was a charmer about two women, starry-eyed dreamers named Connie and Carla, who, through a combination of maintaining a positive outlook in the face of less than glowing reviews and working tirelessly at their craft, finally get their big break in “the biz.” And that is a scenario with which Vardalos is somewhat familiar.
“Oh yeah,” she remembers, “when I started out, my phone wasn’t exactly ringing off the hook with dealmakers looking for that funny Greek girl. Please. But like the classic story, I just kept at it. I really had to be my own cheerleader, at times. It can be really tough, sometimes being the only person in your corner. But I believed. And I worked at whatever I could do. I had yard sales even! And I kept doing what I loved and drawing from my own experiences. I put it all into a play and the right people saw it…and then it happened.”
Producer Jonathan Glickman, President for Spyglass Entertainment, was visiting family in Detroit when Vardalos’ film was playing in theaters. His cousin had just seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding and was crazy about it. Lured by great word of mouth, Glickman watched the movie and liked what he saw.
Glickman recounts, “I’d heard some buzz on the picture—it had made about 10 million at that point, but people hadn’t started talking about Nia… yet. I knew that Peter Safran represented her, so we all sat down and had a very nice meeting. She gave us her script for Connie and Carla and as soon as I read it, I knew there was a great idea in there. I gave the script to Roger [Birnbaum] and Gary [Barber], and we decided to acquire the rights. Then, almost right after that, Nia became a big star.”
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Connie and Carla (2004)
Directed by: Michael Lembeck
Starring: Nia Vardalos, Toni Collette, David Duchovny, Stephen Spinella, Dash Mihok, Alec Mapa, Christopher Logan, Ian Gomez, Robert John Burke, Veena Sood, Debbie Reynolds
Screenplay by: Nia Vardalos
Production Design by: Jasna Stefanovic
Cinematography by: Richard Greatrex
Film Editing by: David Finfer
Costume Design by: Ruth Myers
Set Decoration by: Dominique Fauquet-Lemaitre
Art Direction by: Geoff Wallace
Music by: Randy Edelman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual humor and drug references.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: April 16, 2004
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $8,085,771 (71.3%)
Foreign: $3,255,245 (28.7%)
Total: $11,341,016 (Worldwide)
Views: 89
