Maybe it's that I'm a little of a cynic, but the fact that the story of TO WONG FOO - THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, JULIE NEWMAR has an incredibly unoriginal premise but manages to look so wasn't lost on me. Or the fact that despite the fact that for some of the subject matter exposed here, nothing quite serious was made of it. Nevertheless, I will say that from start to escapist finish, the movie was fun, entertaining, and quite daring if for the presence of three macho actors effectively playing drag queens (and never allowing us to see them in any other form).
Like I said, the premise of this movie has been done to death: highly different people come to a small town (by accident), see the problems there, and manage in the course of their stay to get townsfolk to get in touch with themselves. It's a premise seen in such films as Pasolini's TEOREMA which had a different yet similar premise where a stranger gets inside a household and manages to somehow change every person there. Of course, that film was risky; this one, while featuring drag queens, is not. But my guess is that the intentions of the writer and director was not to attack social issues (such as spousal abuse, or Vida's estrangement from her family, for example), but to present them and move on because life is and should be a party.
But this course is the movie's fault. That Vida Boheme, Noxema Jackson, and Chi-Chi Rodriguez, in getting lost and winding in a backwoods town where not only do they stumble upon Carol Ann (admirably played by Stockard Channing) who is being abused by her husband (in two particularly uncomfortable scenes, one played off-screen), but where Chi-Chi almost gets raped by the local roughnecks, seems like this should belong in something darker, not a comedy. The fact that on both occasions nothing is resolved (satisfactorily) points towards this movie's failure to step up to the plate, examine those issues, and make something truly revelatory. That what should have been a one-scene situation in which Vida Boheme whacks Sheriff Dollard unconscious is turned into a weak showdown in which neither of the drag queens comes out to make an appearance (like they would under similar circumstances; anyone who knows or has seen drag queens knows that they have little fear of cops or men in uniform and will knock them out easily) only makes matters more false: whether or not these townsfolk were latently ready to accept "change" it is highly unlikely that it would have been played out this way. Why would Dollard even want to arrest these men in drag? It makes little sense but to force the issue that the "people" will stand up for Those Who Are Different. (And that among those "people" are the same roughnecks, now wearing pink and read boas? Something is wrong here.) And that Virgil just drives away once Dollard has been humiliated probably can be plausible in a non-verbal, more poetic sense, but again, this is not a poetic movie with suggestive images devoid of dialog, and the reality in spousal abuse is much different than what is left unexplored here. Also unsatisfactorily is the way ChiChi's budding relationship with the local guy (Jason London) is handled: why not have him know she is a he and by doing so, take a huge risk that would strike the point home? Maybe it's timing. America isn't ready for men in drag and the chance someone might see through the appearance of femininity a man may have and go with their instincts. If Leguizamo's and London's characters would have hooked up it would have sent the message right onto anyone's lap. Building the gorgeous scenes between them as if to lead the viewer to believe they will become an item only to have ChiChi reject him is a total cop-out.
TO WONG FOO is a movie that should have tackled these premises more upfront. It should have given all three of these men an actual sex life, real personalities. The closest thing that happens to romance is some shy flirting from Bobby Ray (Jason London) towards Chi-Chi, but even that is left flat after much exposition. The same way nothing else is said of Vida's familial relationship: all we know is that there is an estrangement, but nothing else. And Noxema gets saddled with nothing else but to be there, say one-liners, and chat with an old lady about Hollywood. And this is also, precisely, what keeps it from being a richer movie which explores its characters instead of laying them out to pasture and later dressing them in boas and fancy dresses. To see a drag queen without her make up on is to see the man underneath; since we aren't given that chance here, this is drag-lite, in which all is at surface level, messages of love run rampant as house music plays in the background, and just as it started, it ends in a beauty parade.
Kudos to Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo for stepping out of their shoes and donning pumps and wigs. All are great, in equal measure. Snipes manages to channel a lot of Missy Elliott while Swayze might as well have become Brini Maxwell with a red wig. Leguizamo, though, is my favorite. While playing a close rendition of Rosie Perez with a good deal of Jennifer Lopez (pre J. Lo.; look closely and it's there), he gives his character a sweet dimension. These three are the ones who make this movie completely enjoyable despite these complaints that arise once the credits have rolled. Because of them I accepted the (pardon the pun) fairytale ending and its message of love and acceptance, and that takes guts and talent to make it work.
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