Hairspray buffs away original film's rusty elements, adds exceptional musical numbers

****1/2 (out of 5)


Netflix: Hairspray


John Travolta in a dress. I've been hearing about it for 6 months and finally got to witness it today on DVD. He plays a woman in a fat suit very well, and does some great dance numbers that I doubt a real fat woman could pull off. But his role is just one part of the great musical that is Hairspray.
When I discovered the original cult musical back in 1988, I thought I was the only one who saw it. Introducing Ricki Lake to the world as Tracy Turnblad, this modest movie was director John Waters' attempt at going mainstream. Before this he made small, grungy films like Pink Flamingoes and Polyester, but here he had a big "name" cast and used them in hysterically original ways. By 1988 the world had forgotten about Sonny Bono, Blondie's Debbie Harry and Jerry Stiller. Not to mention famed transvestite, Divine.
After the movie, Bono's political career took off, Harry had a bit of a comeback and of course Stiller starred as Seinfeld's Frank Costanzo. Ricki Lake made more movies and a had very successful talk show. And while Waters enjoyed some success with later movies he will always be known as the man behind Hairspray. So his greatest accomplishment since, was reimagining it as a Broadway play and while I've never seen that, if it's half as good as the movie, then it must be great.
I am hard critic of musicals, because so many of the songs sound a like, but this movie has a varied and exhilarating soundtrack. Both the lyrics and script are filled with funny one liners. And though it could have been shaved down 15 minutes, it still has a satisfying ending.
Newcomer Nikki Blonsky plays Tracy Turnblad, a heavy Baltimore teenager who's dream is to be on "local daytime television" as a dancer on the "Corny Collins Show." It is 1962 and the world is changing, even in this moderately Southern town. Corny Collins (played by the always dependable James Marsden-Superman Returns, X-Men) wants to integrate his show, but the station's executives will only allow one "Negro Day" a month. The integration stuff in the movie is treated for macabre laughs, but has a serious, bittersweet moment during the march sequence with the Queen Latifah song "I Know Where I've Been."
Everyone shines in the film. Michelle Pfeiffer, as one TV Executive, plays a queen witch to such perfection, she should have her own nighttime soap. Christopher Walken is his usual quirky self as Mr. Turnblad, a man so deeply in love with his large wife, he doesn't even recognize when a red-dressed Pfeiffer is trying to seduce him. Latifah continues to surprise me with both her acting and singing even after her Oscar-nominated performance in Chicago. Blonsky is a much better singer than Ricki Lake, but I'm not sure she has as much star quality, we'll see. And Travolta's eyes and Southern-accented voice are the only recognizable parts of his performance, that is until he dances. 50+ years old and in a fat suit and heels and he can still move, amazing. And he peels off some of the funniest lines of the film. "I dreamed of owning a coin-operated laundromat, missy, but I quickly came down to earth."


The Freditor