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Happy, Texas
USA 1999
Reviewed by Philip Kemp
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
On a Texas chain gang, convict Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr picks a fight with the brutal Bob Maslow, alarming a third felon on the chain, conman Harry Sawyer. When the van taking them to solitary crashes, Maslow takes off. Harry and Wayne hijack a rundown Winnebago and find themselves escorted to the small town of Happy, Texas, by the local sheriff Chappy Dent. The van actually belongs to two gay beauty-pageant producers, David and Steven, hired to stage a pre-teen pageant in Happy. Harry and Wayne adopt the gay pair's identities.
Harry hatches a plan to rob the town bank during the pageant. Leaving Wayne to coach five small girls for the event, he sets about gaining the confidence of the bank president, Josephine 'Joe' McLintock, to whom he becomes attracted. Meanwhile Chappy finds Harry arousing his latent homosexuality. Wayne discovers an aptitude for stagecraft and wins the admiration of schoolmistress Ms Schaefer. When the girls qualify for the semi-finals, she and Wayne have sex. On the day of the pageant, Harry and Wayne decide to abandon their bank heist but Maslow reappears and forces them to go through with it. Harry summons the Texas marshals. Chappy, devastated by Harry's rejection, is wounded while heroically foiling Maslow's attack on the bank. Maslow takes Joe hostage, but is captured after a chase. Back in jail for a short spell, Harry and Wayne are visited by Joe and Ms Schaefer, while Chappy finds happiness with a Texas marshal.
Review
Two minutes into Happy, Texas, one convict clouts another over the head with a dead armadillo. This suggests we're in for some undemandingly broad humour in the Zucker or Farrelly Brothers style. But although it reverts to slapstick for its set-piece chase finale, for most of its length Mark Illsley's debut film offers an unexpectedly gentle, even sentimental comedy of sexual identities, a less raucous version of The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
Here, as in Stephan Elliott's film, most of the comedy derives from the clash of cultures, and from the effect on a backwoods world as its denizens open up, under the influence of the anomalous outsiders, to suppressed aspects of their own sexuality. However, the edge is taken off the humour by the film's overall air of benevolence. This is one Texas burgh where homophobia is utterly unknown. The people of Happy ("The Town Without a Frown") regard their supposedly gay visitors with nothing more aggressive than bemused curiosity and go out of their way to be tactful. Even the macho Wayne, initially horrified at the subterfuge, soon starts getting in touch with his feminine side. ("First I gotta make little polka-dotted flowers for the girls' hats," he protests when Harry summons him for a heist conference.)
If Happy, Texas' central plotline - of the two conmen coming to care about the small-town folk they were planning to dupe - is hardly unexpected, it's worked out with some warm and sensitive scripting, especially in the exchanges between Harry and Joe. Jeremy Northam turns in a neatly understated comic performance, well matched by Ally Walker. As the secondary couple Steve Zahn and Illeana Douglas get less support from the script and tend to ham it up accordingly. But acting honours are stolen, not for the first time, by the peerless William H. Macy as the lovelorn sheriff. His Texas-shuffle number, in the gay bar where he takes Harry on a date, withstands comparison to Jack Lemmon's tango in Some Like It Hot (1959), and his tearful response to Harry's rejection is genuinely moving. Cutting through the general fluffiness, the scene injects a moment of real pain into a film that, though bright and likeable, is otherwise a touch too good-natured for its own good.
Credits
- Director
- Mark Illsley
- Producers
- Mark Illsley
- Rick Montgomery
- Ed Stone
- Screenplay
- Ed Stone
- Mark Illsley
- Phil Reeves
- Director of Photography
- Bruce Douglas Johnson
- Editor
- Norman Buckley
- Production Designer
- Maurin Scarlata
- Music
- Peter Harris
- ©Happy Texas Investors, LLC
- Production Companies
- Miramax International presents in association with Marked Entertainment an Illsley/Stone production
- Executive Producer
- Jason Clark
- Producer
- Additional Photography:
- Mike Leahy
- Co-producer
- Glenn S. Gainor
- Associate Producer
- Norman Buckley
- Production Supervisors
- Debra L. Gainor
- Additional Photography:
- Ron Schmidt
- Production Co-ordinators
- Brendan Garst
- Additional Photography:
- Ronald Cosmo Vecchiarelli
- Unit Production Manager
- J. Patrick Clark
- Location Managers
- Joe 'The Turk' Burk
- Christopher Lee
- Additional Photography:
- Michael Gene Paolillo
- Post-production
- Supervisor:
- Teresa Kelly
- Co-ordinators:
- Armand Garabidian
- Doug Sulkin
- Additional Photography Supervisor:
- Korik Morii
- Consultant:
- Harry Miller
- 2nd Unit Director
- Ricardo Matta
- Assistant Directors
- George Bamber
- Robin Jorden
- Jody Spilkoman
- 2nd Unit:
- Jose Hernandez
- Shawn Hanley
- Additional Photography:
- Fernando Altschul
- Kelly Kiernan
- Script Supervisor
- Samantha Kirkeby
- Casting
- Joe Garcia
- ADR Voice:
- Steve & Edie
- 2nd Unit Director of Photography
- Bengt Jan Jonsson
- Steadicam Operators
- Rick Tiedemann
- Additional Photography:
- Gavin Ames
- Digital Facilities
- THDX
- 3D Animation:
- Inaki Imaz
- 2D Compositing:
- Michael Adkisson
- Pyrotechnics
- Gregory C. Landerer
- Associate Editor
- Jeff McEvoy
- Art Director
- Tobey Bays
- Set Decorator
- Phoebe O'Connor
- Scenic Artist
- Suzette Stotts
- Costume Designer
- Julia Schklair
- Costume Supervisor
- Mandi Line
- Key Make-up/Hair
- Pico
- Make-up
- Karen Scherer
- Additional Artists:
- Suzan Kaminga
- Carla Fabrizi
- Key, Additional Photography:
- Ania M. Harasimiak
- Key Hairstylist
- Additional Photography:
- Solina Tabrizi
- Titles/Opticals
- Title House
- Jennifer Rae Smith
- Blake Busby
- Jose Avitia
- Additional Music
- David Feinman
- James Stemple
- Percussion
- M.B. Gordy
- Orchestral Score Performed by
- Northwest Sinfonia
- Music Supervisors
- Emily Kaye
- Alex Patsavas
- Music Co-ordinator
- Audrey Deroche
- Score Producers
- David Feinman
- Peter Harris
- Music Editors
- Brian Kirk
- Ron Finn
- Scoring Mixer
- Scott Cochran
- Midi Consultant
- Kevin Bassinson
- Soundtrack
- "Passin'n Thru" by Johnny Cash, Randy Scruggs, performed by Randy Scruggs with Joan Osborne; "Good at Secrets" by Kim Richey, Maia Sharp, performed by Kim Richey; "The Little Light of Mine" performed by Carly Fink; "Ordinary Heart" by Emmylou Harris, Kimmie Rhodes, performed by Emmylou Harris; "After a Kiss" by Steven Dale Jones, Carolyn Dawn Jones, performed by Pam Tillis; "Are You Happy Baby" by Lee Roy Parnell, Gary Nicholson, performed by Lee Roy Parnell, Keb'Mo; "Baila este ritmo" by Ron Morales, Raul 'Nunie' Rubio, Leonardo 'Flaco' Jimenez, Michael Morales, performed by Flaco Jimenez; "Me Neither" by Brad Paisley, Chris Dubois, Frank Rogers, performed by Brad Paisley; "Half a Man" by Kent Blazy, Jeffrey Steele, performed by Shannon Brown; "Honky Tonk Song" by Buck Peddy, Mel Tillis, performed by BR5-49; "Hurdy Gurdy Monkey Shine" by Jason Burns, Jesse Dayton, performed by the Road Kings; "Konfetti" by Krys Moram, Claude Tarrasu, Jan Tinski; "Back Beat Boogie" by Ray Davies; "Feelin' Kinda Lucky" by Robert Williams, performed by Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys; "Back in the Swing" by/performed by Davin James; "Shot Gun" by Rick Miller, performed by Southern Culture on the Skids; "The Entertainer" arranged by Brian Kirk; "Oh So Quiet" by Hans Lang, Bert Reisfeld, performed by Jillian Berard, Scarlett Pomers, Tiffany Takara, Melissa Arnold, Cassie Silva
- Choreography
- Kelly Devine
- Production Sound Mixer
- Ed White
- 2nd Unit Sound Mixers
- Kip Gyn
- James Dehr
- Re-recording Mixers
- Wayne Artman Sr
- Robert Harman
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Michael Payne
- Dialogue Editors
- Paul Curtis
- John C. Stuver
- Frederick H. Stahly
- Supervising Sound Effects Editor
- Ann Scibelli
- Sound Effects Editors
- Jeff Whitcher
- Elisabeth Flaum
- Jeff K. Brunello
- Laura Kamper
- Michael Kamper
- ADR
- Additional Supervision:
- Andrew DeCristofaro
- Loop Group:
- Steve Bulen
- Edie Mirman
- Newell Alexander
- Mitch Carter
- David Cowgill
- Jackie Gonneau
- Joyce Kurtz
- Gracie Moore
- Recordist:
- Shawn Kennelly
- Mixer:
- Eric Thompson
- Editor:
- Paul Curtis
- Foley
- Recording:
- Ground Control Studios
- Greg Mauer
- Susan Pusateri
- Greg Louden
- Stunt Co-ordinators
- Bobby C. King
- Additional Photography:
- Manny Perry
- Animal Trainer
- Additional Photography:
- Steve Martin's Working Wildlife
- Cast
- Jeremy Northam
- Harry Sawyer
- Steve Zahn
- Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr
- Ally Walker
- Josephine 'Joe' McLintock
- Illeana Douglas
- Ms Schaefer
- William H. Macy
- Sheriff Chappy Dent
- M.C. Gainey
- Bob Maslow
- Ron Perlman
- Nalhober
- Paul Dooley
- the judge
- Mo Gaffney
- Mrs Bromley
- Jillian Berard
- Madison
- Scarlett Pomers
- Jency
- Melissa Arnold
- Cassie Silva
- Tiffany Takara
- other Happy girls
- Tim Bagley
- David
- Michael Hitchcock
- Steven
- Ed Stone
- Alton
- Rance Howard
- Ely
- Derek Montgomery
- bully boy
- Kiva Lawrence
- pageant judge
- Carly Fink
- 'Little Light Girl'
- David Shackelford
- Varnel
- Kim Story
- guard
- Certificate
- 12
- Distributor
- Buena Vista International (UK)
- 8,872 feet
- 98 minutes 35 seconds
- Dolby
- Colour by
- Foto-Kem