message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

          
Hairspray  Rated PG
Directed by Adam Shankman.  Starring Nikki Blonsky, John Travolta  

Photos © New Line Cinema

Hairspray is a musical about the early 1960s that is more about the movies and musicals of the sixties than the decade itself.  From an opening overhead shot that recollects the beginning of West Side Story (except in place of New York City, we zoom in on Baltimore, Maryland) we move into a film that evokes Bye Bye Birdie and Elvis Presley.  Tracie Turnblad (Blonsky) is a peppy and positive teenager who sings “Good Morning, Baltimore!” to everyone in town, including garbage men and rats.  Nothing can keep Tracie down.  She and her friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) look forward each afternoon when high school is over and they can rush home to watch “The Corny Collins Show”, Baltimore’s answer to Philadelphia’s “American Bandstand”.  The show’s teenage dancers include kids from town, and plus-sized Tracie seems like someone who might never get a chance to be on the show.  But never underestimate a teenager whose parents encourage her to go for her dreams.  When Tracie learns a few dance moves from the African-American kids in detention hall, she not only has something new to bring to the airwaves, but she will stop at nothing less than full integration of the program, which up to this point has been an all-white show, with the exception of a monthly Negro Day.  On paper, the plot sounds heavy-handed, but the film itself is a light and frothy confection of good cheer with a cast that is having the time of their lives with a tuneful Marc Shaiman score.  Since the original 1988 John Waters’ film, the part of Edna Turnblad, Tracie’s mother, has been played by a man in drag.  For this film, John Travolta is Edna, but he chooses to play her as a woman, rather than a poorly-disguised man.  With Christopher Walken as Wilbur, Tracie’s dad, the two make quite a delightful and loving couple.  I started smiling the minute the first song started and kept smiling for the next two hours.  This is a wonderful film and a great time at the movies.  I have two mild critiques, however. There are some cheap shots at Penny’s mother’s Christian faith, but nothing particularly mean-spirited. There are some obvious sex jokes in the script, but no character actually commits sexual sin, which more than makes up for the mild rudeness.  This is truly a film that families can see together and enjoy on different levels.  Hairspray’s message of acceptance and love is an obvious one, but one of the best messages of all.  Don’t wait for the DVD; enjoy this one on the big screen with a theater-full of people of all ages.  This is the best film of the summer, so far

Pitchfork Rating: Four halos. (A positive and joy-filled sixties musical, with a message of toleration and understanding.)  One pitchfork. (Some mild sexual innuendos, which younger children will miss, and some mild suggestive dance moves and scenes of youth smoking cigarettes; there’s also some cheap shots at religious fundamentalism.)

 

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