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CinePhillyist Reviews... The Men Who Stare at Goats
I love movies, but I'm generally a pretty passive movie viewer. By that, I mean that I don't usually get lost in the world of the film. I enjoy what I'm seeing, and I like to think I appreciate it on a pretty high artistic level. But I'm always very aware of the fact that what I'm watching is a movie. So I don't usually feel compelled to stand up and cheer at the end of a film. Or at six or seven points leading up to the end of the film.
Enter Hairspray, the absolutely delightful and excellently cast musical (based on the Broadway play, based on the 1988 John Waters film) that left me smiling for the rest of the evening, and singing the infectious soundtrack for the rest of the week. Every single time a song ended in Hairspray, I had to stop myself from bursting into applause. I know I wasn't the only one at last week's press screening who felt the same way: on more than one occasion, a series of two or three rapid claps would ring out as the final note of a song was carried, until the applauder remembered that s/he was a critic and therefore not supposed to be showing any emotion during the screening. But from the opening strains of "Good Morning, Baltimore" (complete with brief-but-hilarious cameo by Waters himself as "the flasher who lives next door"), believe me, everyone wanted to.
Prior to its release, Hairspray actually received a good deal of less-than-positive press surrounding the casting of John Travolta as Edna Turnblad, considered an iconic gay role, due to his affiliation with the Church of Scientology, which reportedly seeks to cure homosexuality. Travolta addressed these accusations, however, by saying, firstly, that there's nothing gay in the movie (ummm, John? it's a musical...), and secondly, that Scientology isn't homophobic, but is instead quite tolerant (especially of people suffering from psychological disorders, right?), and the movie appears ready to open today without any large-scale protests. Good thing, too. I hate homophobia as much as the next progressive, musical-loving blogger, but honestly, John Travolta is just too good as the obese suburban housewife for anyone to be upset with him for too long. He spends 107 minutes doing his best Miss Piggy (I shit you not – compare this photo to this one and then listen to the movie soundtrack, and tell me you don't see the similarities!) doing her best Divine. It sounds crazy – but it absolutely works.
(The rest of the review after the jump...)
Playing husband to Travolta and father to "pleasantly plump" teenager Tracy Turnblad (played with great aplomb by newcomer Nikki Blonsky) is the inimitable Christopher Walken, whom many seem to forget is actually quite the song-and-dance man. (Remember that Fatboy Slim video?) Sharing the screen with Travolta in his full Edna getup must not have been an easy feat, but Walken manages to avoid losing ground to his artificially-padded costar and even steals a scene or two from Travolta.
Rounding out the bigger names of the cast cast are the always-wonderful-when-she's-singing Queen Latifa (honestly, she should just make musicals from now on, because she kicked some serious ass in Chicago, too), the surprisingly-not-at-all-annoying Amanda Bynes (who probably wins the award for best facial expressions in the film), the probably-too-young-for-his-part James Marsden (but I'll admit that I find him eye candy, in spite of myself), the still-obscenely-gorgeous Michelle Pfeiffer (Grease 2 was so forgettable that most people probably forgot she knew how to sing and dance) and the last-seen-as-C.J. Cregg Allison Janney (whose part, it seems, landed mostly on the cutting room floor). The cast also includes younger, lesser-known performers like Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, and the very, very talented Elijah Kelley, all of whom I've no doubt that you'll be seeing plenty of in the future.
Standout numbers in the film include Walken and Travolta's duet on "(You're) Timeless to Me," the ensemble "You Can't Stop the Beat," and Michelle Pfeiffer's funny and more than a little dirty "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs." The choreography throughout the film isn't complex, but it is energetic and fun and performed in perfect synchrony by the cast. I honestly couldn't have hoped for a better combination of performances on screen, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
But while the film is all good fun, it does actually carry with it a broader message of acceptance – whether in the context of accepting Tracy because she's heavier than the other girls, or in the more important issue of racial integration. It's a message that works seamlessly, and often with great humor, with one notable exception: the whole look and feel of the film changes for the duration of "I Know Where I've Been," a song performed by Queen Latifa as she leads a peaceful protest march on downtown Baltimore. Gone are the bright colors and static cameras, replaced, instead, by a grittier, documentary feel (including a different film quality and/or processing), and too many cross-fades between camera angles. It's a gorgeous song, but the stylistic shift renders it distracting, and therefore, mostly ineffective. My suggestion: close your eyes and listen to the beautiful vocals – just be sure you've got them open by the time the next scene rolls around.
To conclude—and I can't emphasize this enough—go see Hairspray. Run. Don't walk. And prepare to have a helluva lot of fun.
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"The cast also includes younger, lesser-known performers like Brittany Snow, Zac Efron"
Zac Efron was the lead in High School Musical and the soon-to-be-released High School Musical 2. He is DEFINITELY not lesser-known (maybe in Hollywood) but I bet every kid in America will know who he is. (I saw HSM sheets at Walmart this week. SHEETS! You can sleep with the whole HSM crew EVERY NIGHT! - don't ask why I was in Walmart...I was in upstate NY. I haven't been a Walmart for over a year.)
I am seeing this movie in an hour and I am pee-your-pants-excited in a very heterosexual-musical loving way! :)
I just got home. Excellent movie! I too wanted to clap and toward the end the audience just started clapping. It was great!
I thought it was better than the Broadway production. The story was more understandable and with the added cuts & songs, I thought it was much tighter.
I almost peed my pants at John Travolta. So funny.