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Title: Hairspray
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Parents, with the exeption of some mild crude comments this movie good fun for the whole family. Recommended for ages 6 and up. |
Never in all my life have I ever felt musicals were back in style. I cringed at “Chicago’s” poor attempt to revive the musical and failing to do so (though it did win an Academy Award for Best Picture, so maybe the jokes on me). “Dreamgirls” was a decent movie, but a pure musical it was not (it was mainly love ballads). But “Hairspray” is a horse of a different color. In fact, it’s a horse of many different colors, as “Hairspray” is the most colorful movie I’ve seen this year. Oh, but I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s get back to the musical dilemma I was musing about. As mentioned before, while Hollywood has been making several big (and expensive) bids to revive the musical I have not been convinced of any musical revival until I saw “Hairspray,” a remake of the 1988 film from John Waters (which is noticable for being the only sane movie that man ever made). The movie revolves around young high school girl Tracey, played wonderfully by newcomer Nikki Blonsky.
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Tracey is an overweight girl living in Baltimore, but the fact that she’s overweight doesn’t bother her one bit. In fact Tracey is the equivalent of shaking a bottle of Pepsi; she’s so bubbly and sweet you just want to squeeze her to death. Tracey and her best friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) spend their afternoons watching “Corny Collins” on a local UHF station. “Corny Collins” is one of those corny 60's dance shows like “The Hop,” where all those beautiful teenagers dance their hearts out and play with their hair. They are super corny, and yet there is something charming about this show. Enough charm, at least, that we don’t blame Tracey for wanting to be on the show. She gets her wish of course, and starts causing trouble when she not only becomes the most popular girl on the show (despite her weight), but also because she wants to make “Negro Day” into “Everyday.”
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“Woah, woah” I bet everyone’s thinking. “Negro Day? Is this movie racist or something?” Actually, maybe I should have made a note that this movie not only looks like a 60's TV show, but it also takes place DURING the 60's! So there is still segregation in the world, but not on “Corny Collins,” where at least one day a month is “Negro Day,” a day where negro’s get to show off their dancing skills (but they still can’t dance with whites). Tracey wants to abolish this day though and invite the negro’s to dance everyday on the show. Because, really, why limit them to one day a month? Since we live in the new millennium, we agree with this statement, but I still found it kind of strange to be watching a movie based on segregation. Movies on this subject are easier to sell when they are based on true stories, but here we have a movie about racism told in the form of a musical.
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It sounds weird, but it really does work. Partly because the movie never takes itself too seriously. Partly because with the exception of a few key characters in the film (most notably Michelle Pfeiffer’s character) everyone in this film is all for abolishing segregation. I think mainly this slides is because the movie just ends up being lots of fun despite this (seemingly jarring) development. Besides, the black characters in this film are so cool, there’s little doubt they’ll be accepted by audiences everywhere. No, the main topic that is tackled is the issue of weight and change. Tracey goes through life with an optimistic smile on her face because she’s seen the world, she see’s it changing for the better, and that excites her. She doesn’t have to worry about her weight because “different is becoming cool.”
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Though Tracey has come to terms with her weight, her overweight mother Edna (played in an Oscar worthy performance by John Travolta) is less optimistic, constantly self conscious about how much she weighs to the point where she doesn’t really leave the house anymore. Now the thing about John Travolta playing an overweight woman is really nothing more then a simple in-joke. In case you haven’t seen the original John Waters version of “Hairspray” you need to realize that this role was originally played by transvestite Divine. The fact that they have another man in drag playing this woman is the joke.
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The fact that it works is a great surprise. You always know it’s John Travolta in that dress, but he actually manages to be very convincing as a woman. Once he becomes convincing as a woman he then becomes interesting as a character, and after awhile we stop thinking about the technique and are absorbed in the character itself. I don’t know if this was intentional, but nevertheless it works. And Christopher Walken’s role...well, why would any sane reviewer spoil the fun of seeing a Christopher Walken performance for themselves? I know that “Hairspray” is not deep or complicated. I know it’s an enormous amount of fluff that’s pretty disposable, but it’s fun while it lasts. Oh, and I guess I should mention that despite how bubbly they are (like everything else in this movie), the songs really are great fun. So with those final words I whole heartingly recommend “Hairspray,” the return of the Hollywood musical.
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