Hairspray

PLOT:

On May 3, 1962, Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), a cheerful, rotund high school student living in Baltimor, Maryland, endures a day’s worth of school so that she and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) can race home to view their favorite TV program, The Corny Collins Show. The program, a teen dance show, is broadcast from Baltimore’s station WYZT on weekday afternoons.

The teenagers featured on the show attend Tracy and Penny’s school, in particular the arrogant rich girl Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow) and her boyfriend Link Larkin (Zac Efron), with whom Tracy is madly in love. Amber’s mother Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer) manages station WYZT, and goes out of her way to make sure that Amber is prominently featured and that The Corny Collins Showremains a segregated program. Corny Collins (James Marsden) and all of his “Council Members” are white; black kids are only allowed on The Corny Collins Showon “Negro Day”, held the last Tuesday of each month and hosted by local rhythm and blues radio DJ “Motormouth” Maybelle (Queen Latifah).

Neither Tracy’s reclusive laundress mother Edna (John Travolta) nor Penny’s strict Catholic mother Prudy (Allison Janney) approve of their daughters basing their lives around a TV show, particularly one where teens dance to “race music”. Tracy’s father, Wilbur (Christopher Walken), a joke-shop proprietor, is far more lenient. On one day’s show, Corny Collins announces that one of his “Council Members” is going on a leave of absence, and that auditions for a replacement will be held the next morning during school hours. When Tracy attends, Velma rejects Tracy at the audition for being overweight and supportive of integration. Tracy is sent to detention for skipping school, learning that the African-American students practice their dance in the school’s detention hall. Tracy befriends the detention hall’s best dancer, Motormouth Maybelle’s son, Seaweed (Elijah Kelley), who teaches Tracy several R&B dance moves. These moves secure Tracy a position in The Corny Collins Show.

Tracy quickly becomes one of Corny’s most popular “Council Members” and a threat to Velma’s wish to have Amber win the show’s yearly “Miss Teenage Hairspray” pageant. Tracy also becomes a threat to Amber’s courtship of Link, as the boy becomes increasingly fond of Tracy and less so of Amber. Tracy’s popularity earns her a sponsorship offer from clothes salesman Mr. Pinky (Jerry Stiller), who wants Tracy to be the spokesgirl for his “Hefty Hideaway” boutique. Tracy convinces Edna to accompany her to the “Hefty Hideaway” and act as her negotiating agent, and in the process brings her mother’s days as an agoraphobe to an end.

At school, Tracy introduces Seaweed to Penny, whereupon the two are instantly smitten with each other. One afternoon after Amber deliberately has Tracy sent to detention, Link causes the teacher to send him after her. There, Seaweed invites the girls and Link to follow him and his sister Little Inez (Taylor Parks) to a platter party at Motormouth Maybelle’s record shop. At the party, Maybelle informs everyone that Velma has canceled “Negro Day”. Tracy, in reply, suggests that Maybelle and the others stage a protest march, which they plan for the next afternoon, a day before the “Miss Teenage Hairspray” pageant. Link, scheduled to sing at the pageant and fearing for his budding career, does not attend the demonstration, disappointing Tracy. Meanwhile in Tracy’s father’s joke shop, Velma visits Wilbur and flirts with him, and Edna arrives home and finds Velma, sitting on Wilbur and then pushing him up against the wall. Distraught, Edna kicks Wilbur out and bans Tracy from ever performing on that show, which was Velma’s intention. Tracy talks with her father and he and Edna reconcile through song and dance.

The next morning, Tracy sneaks out of the house to join the protest march, which comes to a halt at a police roadblock set up by Velma. The entire company of protesters is arrested, although Tracy manages to escape. She flees to the Pingletons’ house, where Penny lets her hide in a basement fallout shelter. Prudy discovers Tracy and calls the police while tying Penny to her bed upstairs with a jump rope. Seaweed and his friends, having been bailed out by Wilbur, arrive and help Tracy and Penny escape. The kids then concoct a plan to crash the “Miss Teenage Hairspray” pageant. Meanwhile, Link visits Tracy’s house to look for her, and realizes that he is as much in love with her as she is with him. Seaweed and Penny also acknowledge their love during the escape from her house.

With the pageant underway, Velma, leaving nothing to chance, places policemen around and inside station WYZT to prevent Tracy from entering. In addition, Velma switches the tallies from the pageant’s phone lines so that Amber is guaranteed to win. Penny arrives at the pageant with an incognito Edna, while Wilbur, Seaweed, and Seaweed’s friends help Tracy infiltrate the studio in time to participate in the “Miss Teenage Hairspray” dance contest. Link breaks away from Amber to dance with Tracy; later, he pulls Inez, who has just arrived at WYZT with Maybelle, to the stage to dance in the pageant.

Against all expectations, Inez receives the most votes and wins the pageant, officially integrating The Corny Collins Show. A perturbed Velma loudly declares her frustration, informing her daughter of the tally-switching scheme. Unbeknownst to Velma, Edna has turned a camera on her, and Velma’s outburst is broadcast live on the air, causing her to be fired from the program. Meanwhile, The Corny Collins Show set explodes into a celebration as Link and Tracy cement their love with a kiss.

REVIEW:

As musicals go, this is one of my favorites. Admittedly, I wasn’t a big fan of the original Hairspray movie. That may be due to the fact that I saw this one first.

Nikki Blonsky gives one of the best performances I’ve ever seen by anyone, rather they’re a Hollywood veteran or newcomer. Hopefully, she’ll get more roles in the future. Quenn Latifah and Christopher Walken are great as always. Michelle Pfeiffer does a pretty good job, but she needs to eat a sandwich or two. John Travolta is a brave and talented man to spend the entire time on screen dressed in drag. Even when he sings, it’s in his Edna voice. However, my Baltimore friends have said that the accent left something to be desired. Having never been to Baltimore, I can’t fault him for that. Zac Efron is destined for greatness, and this role is just going to help his star (along with the High School Musical movies)

This move is perfect, save for one thing. The end number, “You Can’t Stop the Beat”, seemed to go on forever. Don’t get me wrong, I love the song, but it just seemed like it was going on and on. I felt like they could have cut a bit out of it and inserted one of the songs from the end credits in the film.

In this time of darkness, it is good to see a light movie. Also, this film was a surprise hit of the summer of 2007. Had it not been for Transformers and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it might have been the top grossing film of that summer.

As you can guess, I highly recommend this film, especially if you’re a fan of musicals, or just want to see something that isn’t all dark and emo like most most movies are these days.

5 out of 5 stars