Still Smiling ... And Tapping My Feet
Movie Reviewer, a storyteller, a John Travolta fan from the early days
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JUL
24
2007
Hairspray —
I've been waiting to see Hairspray for a long time. Not one to resist a John Travolta movie, this actually has him appearing as an obese woman afraid to leave her home. I'll admit, I was madly in love with him in 6th grade, watching Welcome Back Kotter and even buying his debut album. I've of course followed his career as he took all these delightful twists and turns in it, but this role seems right on par with the others, going along with playing a slovenly angel and a dim-witted mob hit man.I think I was smiling and tapping my feet from the moment the movie started all the way to the minute I got home, when I went on iTunes and downloaded the soundtrack. I had to. The music is great, and by that I mean both the music itself and the lyrics. It opens with Nikki Blonski starring as Tracy Turnblad getting ready for school, teasing her hair and spraying it with "Ultra Crunch" hair spray, causing her teacher later to threaten to write her up again for "inappropriate hair height." She sings Good Morning Baltimore, and while she is entirely perky, she sings about the foods she wants to eat, but can't, as well as the rats, the drunk at the bar, and the flasher she sees on her walk to school.
After school, Tracy and best friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) rush home every day to watch the Corny Collins show, sponsored by Ultra Crunch. Collins is played by James Marsden who has said he modeled Corny after a young Dick Clark as well as Ryan Seacrest, and I can honestly see their influence on this character. The show features young teenage dancers that are advertised as the "nicest kids in town." Corny sings in his intro song that they are "nice white kids," and once a month is "Negro Day." This all takes place in 1962, but just hearing something like "Negro Day" just makes you sit back and realize what a difference 45 years makes.
This becomes the underlying theme as the "negros", including the host of Negro Day, Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah), are happy just to have that one day a month when they are allowed to appear on the show, but TV station manager Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer), an ex-Miss Baltimore, decides the one day has become too much, as it takes screen-time from her daughter Amber (Brittany Snow) and the male lead dancer Link (Zac Efron).
Tracy wants to try out for a spot as dancer on the show, but her mother, Edna, the heavyset woman played by Travolta, puts her foot down. Edna has let herself get so obese, she hasn't left her home in 11 years, and works inside the home doing others' laundry. She's afraid Tracy will get turned down at the audition because of her size. Tracy's father, Wilbur (Christopher Walken in my most favorite role of his since the dad in Blast From the Past), however, sees things differently, and encourages her to follow her dream. He says he followed his own dream, and that's how he ended up as owner of the small magic store that resides underneath their apartment.
At the audition, Tracy is told she is too short and stumpy. As she gets back in school, fresh from her rejection, she receives a detention for being late, and in detention is grouped with the dancers from "Negro Day," led by Seaweed (Elijah Kelley). He teaches Tracy how to dance to rhythm and blues, and they start to find a connection that they are all different and aren't allowed on the super clean Corny Collins show, whether they are short and stumpy or black.
The story, although with a completely light-hearted look, becomes a little deep when you look at the seriousness of the issues such as racism. While the way it's handled is funny and light, we know the road from there to here was anything but. Some of the other looks back at how life was in the early 1960s are funny and shocking as well, such as pregnant women sitting around in a bar smoking and drinking martinis.
While we have grown to expect great acting from Pfeiffer and Walker, we don't expect them to sing and dance so well. Travolta's musical talents we have come to expect, but he still does it well as he did in Grease, and his humor is great in character, just as it was in Look Who's Talking and Michael. Newcomer Blonski does quite well musically and does great with the "wide-eyed-innocent." The weakest link of all was Byes as she seemed to rely on her Nickelodeon roots too heavily, but even she won me over by the end.
I watched Hairspray alone in the theatre, yet I was still smiling and laughing throughout, enjoying the story, the music, the laughter. It truly seemed to have it all. It left me with such a good feeling overall, and while I have enjoyed many recent movies, I don't think I have had this much fun seeing one in quite some time.
Last edited on Sep 25, 2007
Hairspray is recommended by LauraBelle
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