The movie seems strangely unfocused, with the apparent central concept of their masquerade as gay quickly downplayed and Zahn's assimilation of the pageant-master role confined to a few montages - when he suddenly becomes a dedicated, inspirational achiever, it's a bit jarring. Instead, the film meanders through pretty conventional strands about Northam finding himself by serving as Walker's "gay" confidante (admittedly a winning plot strand), planning a bank heist, and other snippets of nothing in particular. There's a slapdash quality to the casting, with Northam ineffective as the solid centre and Zahn getting by on a weird collection of mannerisms rather than a coherent character - Macy is affecting in his role, but the film is a bit fuzzy about the details of his personal self-discovery. Even the closing pageant is barely exploited for comic value. The movie might be deliberately going against the grain of standard plotting, but it doesn't really seem so - it's a not particularly interesting mix of obvious set-ups and plot gambits and discursive if not arbitrary execution.
Review of Happy, Texas
