This Australian movie is a colourful comedy of romance and finding yourself, and it’s clearly a personal project for its writer-star Krew Boylan. I sat down to it hoping for something like Muriel’s Wedding, the film that first introduced us to Toni Collette but unfortunately, there’s something a bit frantic and narcissistic about it: a film that doesn’t quite convince you to care enough about its characters or what they care about.
Red, played by Boylan, is a young woman who is employed in an estate agent’s office and pretty hopeless at the job because, in her goofy and adorable way, her real passion is Dolly Parton: imitating her, studying her and obsessing over her. She’s also a bit self-conscious about being redheaded and flat-chested. But Red finds herself hanging out at a drag/impersonation club, presided over by “Elvis Presley” (a rather self-aware Rose Byrne), where she gets to try out her Dolly act. Before too long, her Dolly avatar is a hit, and she has a double act with “Kenny Rogers” (Daniel Webber) with whom she becomes romantically involved in real life.
