It's in the Water

In this too-broad and too-stereotypical farce (isn't the gay hairdresser bit a little stale by now?) from writer/director Kelli Herd, the sleepy little Southern town of Azalea Springs starts hitting the bottled water, big time, when a rumor begins circulating that homosexuality is spread through the drinking water. Sandwiched between the hit-and-miss antics are a pair of predictable boy-meets-boy and girl-meets-girl love stories that seem impossibly cheery (sort of a Hallmark for gay audiences kind of deal). Although it played to an appreciative crowd when I saw it two years ago at the Seattle International Film Festival, the satiric bite here is strictly sitcom level mild (though I did love the church-led recovering homosexual group, whose re-phrased desiderata included the prayer to be granted "the wisdom to stay out of gay bars.") Very optional. (R. Pitman)