Movies
Happy Texas (1999, Steve Zahn, William H. Macy)
On a Texas chain gang, convict Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr (Steve Zahn) picks a fight with a legendary psycho, to the dismay of their neighbour, conman Harry Sawyer (Jeremy Northam). When the van taking them to solitary confinement crashes, Wayne and Sawyer escape, hijacking a van.
Running into the local Sheriff, Chappy Dent (William H. Macy), the pair follow him to the town of Happy, Texas (‘The town without a frown’), and discover the van was owned by two gay producers hired to organise a beauty pageant. They assume the men’s identities, and construct a plan to rob the bank during the pageant.
As Harry starts to charm the bank manager (Ally Walker) Wayne unearths his hidden talent for stagecraft, to the amusement of schoolteacher Ms. Schaefer (Illeana Douglas). But as both men’s love lives improve, they feel less inclined to rob the bank, especially as the Sheriff has recently found that Sawyer’s arrival has awoken his own latent homosexuality…
‘Not one lesbian ODs in our movie,’ said the producer of his film’s tone, and that’s a fair summation. It’s neither Derek Jarman nor Nathan Lane, satirising its sexuality without demeaning its subject thanks to its leading trio. Northam’s comic talent was unknown, but in the company of Zahn (who took home a special Sundance award when the movie premiered in Aspen) he’s a revelation. Both are in the shadow of Macy, who steals another picture with his delicate and sensitive performance combining effective sentiment with comic intuition that one critic compared to Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot.
production details
USA | 98 minutes | 1999
Director: Mark Illsley
Script: Ed Stone, Mark Illsley, Phil Reeves,
cast
William H. Macy as Sheriff Chappy Dent
Ally Walker as Josephine ‘Joe’ McClintock
Illeana Douglas as Doreen Schaefer
Jeremy Northam as Harry Sawyer
Steve Zahn as Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr.
Mo Gaffney as Mrs. Bromley
Ron Perlman as Marshal Nalhober
M.C. Gainey as Robert ‘Bob’ Allen Maslow
Paul Dooley as The Judge