“Hairspray” hits big

      At first glance, it might seem self-serving to have a star-studded cast fill the big screen in place of Broadway performers for a musical gay romp all about a commercial beauty product. But placing a plump unknown youngster in the lead, and infusing an optimistic look at racial tension of the sixties with hard hitting musical numbers, makes “Hairspray” one of the most inviting movies of the summer, and a much needed uplifting injection for those of us tired of movies that take us to the war-front like “Transformers” and “Live Free or Die Hard.”
    The star of this 60s-laced crusade is Nikki Blonsky, who is rather husky, but carries her load with a intensity that no other actress has yielded since Kathy Bates in “Fried Green Tomatoes.”             The draw of Nikki’s character, Tracy Turnblad, is counter-intuitive to what most overweight lead characters deal with. She does not “deal” with her weight at all, but has, from the opening number of the movie, completely accepted herself.
    Tracy shows us that being fat is a frame of mind rather than physicality.
    While Tracy’s mother, played with varying success by John Travolta, locks herself away in her house and stuffs her face with Ding-Dongs in agony, Tracy rushes out to meet the world. She is the greatest dancer in all of Baltimore and aims to be the star of a local television program which showcases teenage dancing, music (ala “American Bandstand”) and, of course, fabulous hair-dos.
    With Tracy’s go-get’em attitude toward life, it doesn’t take her long before she’s taken over the show and become the most famous teen in town. Her mass appeal is her ability to see everyone as equal, and this outlook eventually lands her at the head of a march for Civil Rights when the program elects to cut out “Negro Day” from its television schedule. Tracy becomes a poster child for letting everyone dance together and, in the glowing world of Broadway Musicals, this is a dream worth watching over and over again.
    Michelle Pfeiffer, John Travolta, Queen Latifah, and Christopher Walken round out the supporting cast. Although Travolta is a bit daunting as an older fat woman in a suit that does not make him look at all like a woman, the role works symbolically as the character, Edna, is also trying to make herself believable as a human being. She has hideous man hands and a froggy voice. As the citizens of Baltimore come to accept her, Edna begins to accept herself, and so do we as an audience. In the end, I can see no other choice for the part.
    Musicals are always a risky business in transition from stage to screen. “Rent” lost a lot of its flavor in the move, and “The Producers” was way too long, but “Hairspray” hit the nail on the head. The film is charitable in its extraordinary optimism; that the world can be changed by a dream, that everyone can be equal, and that a generation can be defined by hairspray.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 6 2007. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry