You may recognize It's in the Water as the opening-night selection from last year's Austin Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The lighthearted comedy scored high with Austin audiences and won Audience Favorite and Best Feature awards at festivals in Laguna Beach, Copenhagen, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

With its playful reversal of common movie stereotypes, the film's success with both gay and lesbian audiences comes as no surprise. Missing from Water are the helpless, self-denying homosexuals we've come to expect from Hollywood films. In their place we find optimistic portraits of assertive men and women coming to terms with their sexuality. For some reason, mainstream movies are incapable of tackling such a task with humor.

But interest in Water definitely shouldn't be limited to gay audiences. Open-minded straight viewers are also likely to enjoy this caricature of a town full of rich, homophobic Texans. Water unfolds in Azalea Springs, a quiet, wholesome Texas town where the residents aren't quite who they seem. No, they don't turn into werewolves when there's a full moon. But if the rumors are to be believed, something in the water is transforming the townsfolk into homosexuals.

As if such a suggestion isn't enough to send these God-fearing Fundamentalists into a panic, the town must decide how to deal with the newly-opened Hope House, a hospice for AIDS patients. The rich society ladies in "The League" reluctantly agree to do their duty by volunteering at the Hope House, though there is little question that they would rather be spending their time taking care of babies than trying to help "those people."

Not everyone in Azalea Springs is so unsympathetic. Ignoring the anti-homo sentiments of her fellow League members, Alex Stratton (Keri Jo Chapman) genuinely wants to help at the Hope House. After all, her best friends are gay. In fact, it turns out that all her high school boyfriends were closet cases. But it isn't until she is reunited with Grace (Teresa Garrett), an old friend working as a nurse at the Hope House, that she is able to explain why she and her husband haven't had sex in six months.

While Alex begins to experiment with a previously undiscovered side of her sexuality, the local newspaper feeds the frenzy with misleading stories about the local water supply. Mark Anderson (Derrick Sanders), the son of the town's newspaper editor, can't quite build up the nerve to tell his father the truth about the water . . . or himself. To make matters more complicated, Mark's plan to overcome his homosexuality backfires when he meets the man of his dreams (Timothy Vahle) at a "Homo-No-Mo" meeting.

Coming out is no easy task in Azalea Springs. Just about everyone in town has sexual quirks, but the residents are definitely not eager to accept a few more homosexuals. Standing in the way of the movie's struggling couples are a variety of hilarious homophobes: ex-cheerleader Sloan (Nancy Chartier) needs implants to keep her husband interested, Robert Stratton (Matthew S. Tompkins) pays more attention to his fitness than his wife, and Brother Daniel (John Addington) doesn't seem entirely convinced that aberrant sexuality is the Devil's work.

With these characters, the movie's "villains," writer/director Kelli Herd takes the opportunity to mock conventional Hollywood heteros and those unwilling to accept homosexuals in real life. In Water, the homosexuals are the normal characters, and it's the straight people who are "queer." The result is a welcome respite from the gay stock characters that we encounter over and over in conventional movies. Herd's script tends towards the sappy, a fault augmented by the amateur cast, but that's not enough to steal the charm from this little film.

Audiences willing to put the issue of sexuality completely aside should find it refreshing to see a movie that rebels against the norm with a smile, rather than a dark diatribe. Water is crafted tastefully and in good humor. Only the hyper-sensitive will be offended, while those looking for juicy titillation should find enough to satisfy.

No matter why you choose to see Water, enjoy a few laughs at the expense of a small Texas town full of narrow-minded straights. They can take it.