DVD REVIEW: "Hairspray"

Movies are designed to do many things, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film whose entire motivation just seemed to make the viewer gloriously happy. "Hairspray" is such a film.

For a musical, "Hairspray" is somewhat of a strange duck. There’s not a memorable song in its entire score, but every singe song within the context of the film is absolutely wonderful and they are sung with the absolute conviction of those who have nothing to lose. And the songs are embedded in production numbers that can be inspiring ("Come So Far [Got So Far To Go]"), exuberant ("Without Love"), touchingly funny ("[You’re] Timeless to Me"), and ultimately danceable ("Run and Tell That," "The Nicest Kids in Town"). And when Queen Latifah lights into a tune such as "I Know Where I’ve Been" I wish Hollywood would make more musicals just so she can be in them.

By now everyone knows the movie stars John Travolta in a fat suit playing a woman (Edna Turnblad). Get over it. Travolta pulls off a near miracle with this performance. I never once forget I’m watching John Travolta, but I do forget Travolta is actually a man. I never saw the original John Waters film, so I missed how Divine approached this role, but Travolta nails it.

Travolta’s performance is just one in a galaxy of splendid ones. Let’s deal with the known actors first. Christopher Walken is appropriately strange as Edna’s devoted husband, Wilbur, who obviously purchases his shirts, his slacks and ties in three different parts of the world. Their musical duet in the backyard of their Baltimore home is a wonderful example of converting an impossible concept into an enchanting scene. Michelle Pfeiffer reminded me that she’s been off the screen for far too long as she turns pettiness into an art form as Velma von Tussle, who’s one claim to fame is that she was once crowned, quite appropriately, Miss Baltimore Crab. Allison Janney, as she often does, disappears within a part, this time as a bigoted, evangelical parent, Prudy Pendleton.

But the movie really belongs to actors not as well known. First and foremost is Nikki Blonsky as Tracy Turnblad, the overweight daughter of Edna and Wilbur whose fight against injustice (both racially and physically motivated) drives the story line. Her best friend and Prudy’s daughter, Penny Singleton (Amanda Bynes), does suggestive things with a lollipop at just the right times that makes me wonder how this film escaped with a PG rating. Her boyfriend is Seaweed (Elijah Kelly) who looks like Clyde McPhatter and sings like Smokey Robinson, the perfect combination for this role. James Marsden turns what could have been a one-dimensional part of a TV dance show host into a fully rounded character.

The film is set in the early ‘60s and revolves around an afternoon dance show (an "American Bandstand" with production numbers) that is segregated and, if Velma, the television station’s manager, has her way will remain so. (Velma is also determined that no overweight girls will get on the program either.) The show is the center of Tracy and Penny’s life and when, in one of the movie’s many classic throwaway bits, one of the dancers has to take a nine-month leave of absence, Tracy decides to audition. Tracy has learned most of her dance moves from Seaweed and other black kids who seem to habitually reside in their high school’s detention class. Although once a month the all-white dance show is replaced by "Negro Day," Tracy fights to get the show completely integrated.

That’s really all I need to tell you about the story line because in this version of "Hairspray" it exists as simply a clothesline on which to hang all the magical musical production numbers and some laugh-out-loud lines. (When Tracy, Penny and Tracy’s boyfriend walk into the record shop owned by Queen Latifah’s character, she says "If we get any more white people in here, we’re going to become a suburb.")

If you don’t have the biggest grin on your face when you take this DVD out of your player, you’re not a person I would particularly like to hang out with.

GRADE: A