A mother superior’s drag race

IF YOU’RE nervous about stepping back into a cinema, this feelgood weepie could be a good way to ease back into your old routine. Like Calendar Girls,The Full Monty and especially Kinky Boots, this is working from the “ordinary person takes up risqué hobby” template.

Twice-Oscar-nominated Jacki Weaver plays Maybelline, a Baptist church choir director from a small town in Texas who heads to San Francisco for the funeral of her drug addict son Rickey (Eldon Thiele).

Neither Maybelline nor her thinly written husband Jeb (Hugh Thompson) have seen him for 10 years after they disowned him for being gay.After being shocked by the camp funeral service, Maybelline learns she has inherited the failing drag club Rickey ran with his boyfriend and business partner Nathan (Adrian Grenier).

Understandably, Nathan gives her a frosty reception, leaving Rickey’s best friend Sienna (Lucy Liu) to take her under her wing.Then a series of unlikely events begin to conspire towards the happy ending.Within seconds of entering Pandora’s Box, the cruel, bigoted Maybelline suffers a conversion that knocks St Paul’s trip to Damascus into a cocked hat.

Suddenly a big-hearted liberal with an in-depth knowledge of gay anthems, she decides to use her Southern charm and Texan grit to turn the fortunes of the club around.

Her plan is to use her choirmaster experience to get lip-syncing drag queens Cherry Poppins (Mya Taylor), Joan of Arkansas (Allister MacDonald) and Tequila Mockingbird (Oscar Moreno) to sing live.

Luckily, it turns out all have been hiding Broadway-standard voices. And as each has a personal problem that desperately needs ironing out by a straight-talking matriarch, she quickly wins their hearts.

The musical elements are well staged andWeaver made my eyes prickle during a scene where Maybelline voices her regrets. But the tear-jerking finale felt unearned. Turns out it’s impossible to cry and roll your eyes at the same time.