HAIRSPRAY
In Theatres:	July 20, 2007
On DVD:	TBA
Reviewed by:	Louis B.
Official website:	www.hairspraymovie.com
	Movie Trailers
	FULL REVIEW
User ratings:	(3 votes, average: 3 out of 5)  Loading …

I wanted to like Hairspray far more than I did.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a fun time, just that it isn’t nearly as outrageous and silly as the material cries out to be.

Hairspray is the story of Tracy Turnblad (dynamite newcomer Nikki Blonsky) a chubby Baltimore teenager whose goal in life is to dance on The Corny Collins Show which is Baltimore’s version of American Bandstand.

This is Baltimore on the verge of the integration movement so, if the nasty Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) has anything to do with it, never the colour twain shall meet.

But then again, Velma has yet to meet Tracy, her equally heavyweight mom Edna Turnblad (John Travolta) and Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah).

From its inception as a Broadway musical based on the John Waters movie, Hairspray has been a Grease wannabe.

If only director Adam Shankman had come to grips with that fact we’d have the over-the-top spoof the stage play is.

If you watch Grease (and you should because it is still a great screen musical) you’ll see just how much mugging is going on.

No one is playing it straight.

The actors are wallowing in stereotypes as they send up musical tradtions which is what should have happened with Hairspray.

Look at what Travolta does in Grease and then catch his subdued performance in Hairspray.

He explained on Oprah that he was playing a woman not a man in drag.

Hello.

In the John Waters’ film Edna was played by that 300-lb drag queen or transvestite Devine and on stage it was Havery Fierstein having a gay old time.

If, as Travolta insists, the Edna is a woman then why didn’t they cast Roseanne Barr?

I kept waiting the whole film for Travolta to really cut loose and have some naughty fun so we could too.

Second case in point.

Travolta is one of the best loved hoofers in film since Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly and he’s teamed up with Christopher Walken playing his husband who is an equally accomplished dancer.

When the two finally have their big screen dance Travolta is in heels so he can’t really strut his stuff.

Plus he’s always doing some silly thing with his chins on his ample bossom.

And yes, I too can see him getting an Oscar nomination for doing the Eddie Murphy fat-suit trick in this one.

Heaven forbid!

Then there’s Queen Latifah more subdued and slimmer than she’s ever been playing the hefty, blonde, loud-mouthed Motormouth Maybelle.

Still, Blonsky is wonderful especially in the opening number Good Morning Baltimore and I Can Hear the Bells.

As the sexy high school jock who can dance up a storm and melt Tracy’s heart, Zac Efron of High School Musical fame is a real find.

He’s Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Travolta all rolled into one.

In fact it is the young cast members including Brittany snow, Amanda Bynes and Elijah Kelley who really put the zest in this musical.

It’s a fun night out and a much better screen musical than The Producers or Phantom of the Opera.

I want to go on record that this is probably the worst time of year to release this film.

If I were a betting man (and I usually lose the bet) I’d say it would have done much better at the box-office in the fall when the target audience of high school and college kids could talk it up amongs themselves.