Entertainingly Kitsch

Hairspray - 3/5




I finally gave in and saw this after everyone I knew who'd seen it enjoying it. There are so many reasons why this should be dreadful, like a director (Adam Shankman) whose CV to date includes such highlights as Cheaper By The Dozen 2 and The Pacifier. Then there's the whole idea of a fat-suited John Travolta in drag - hardly an appealling idea. And that's without raising the whole question of whether our obesity-threatened culture really needs a movie that says its OK to be fat (welcome contrast to the size 0 furore though it may be).








As you might expect the whole thing is irredeemably kitsch, but delivered with enough tongue-in-cheek-iness to be both entertaining and amusing. Of the adults, Travolta is hit and miss until
a spectacular final number. The wonderful Christopher Walken shows that he can't sing, but he can dance and his performance as the father (reminiscent of his turn in Catch Me If You Can) is certainly off-kilter, but curiously endearing. Michelle Pfeiffer vamps it up superbly as the bigotted TV producer - her attempted seduction of an oblivious Walken (trying to sell her joke shop products all the while) is one of the standout moments. Queen Latifah adds vocal depth and a more serious note, whilst The West Wing's Allison Janney is underused, whilst X-Men's James Marsden proves himself a surprisingly versatile performer and showman.





However, the movie really belongs to the kids and they (Nicki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, Elijah Keeley and Brittany Snow) are all excellent in their own ways.



The issues of racism are treated in rather a simplistic way with rather caricatured attitudes played for humour, and yet somehow it seems to work. It certainly fits with the feel of the film and maybe its a sign of how much mainstream attitudes have shifted over the past 50 years that it now makes such a fitting subject for light humour or maybe such attitudes just deserve such ridicule rather than being taken seriously.



This is by no means a great movie, but as lightweight entertainment, is surprisingly amusing in a kitsch way.