Hairspray-- Rip, Roaring Fun

Hairspray is a breezy, broad rendition of the 1988 classic by John Waters and the Tony-nominated Broadway production. Set in 1962 Baltimore, the musical production is the story of a pleasantly plump high schooler, Tracey Turnblad, who longs for a spot on the cheesily-named Corny Collins Show. Turnblad's insecurities about her weight and her subsequent place in her high school class are front and center along with the struggle of a group of gifted African American singers and dancers relegated to performing on Negro Day one day a week. The spirited musical production pits an overweight teenager and her overweight mother against a matriarch and her pampered daughter and an African American musical group against the racist society of the 1960s. Most of the fun in watching director Adam Shankman's adaptation is seeing how Tracey Turnblad and the African American group of musicians sing and dance their way to form an alliance that helps them overcome low self-esteem, prejudice, and racism to reach their potential as performers.

Tracey is smitten by one of the Corny Collins Show's leading young men, Link Larkin, who is the object of Amber von Tussle's affections. Amber (Brittany Snow) is the beautiful daughter of Velma von Tussle, an overheated baracuda of a mother, played to campy-effectiveness by Michelle Pfeiffer. Amber is everything that Tracey is not. She is blond and thin--the picture of 1960s, and for that matter, 2007-perfection. Newcomer Nikki Blonsky gives Tracey an oversized perkiness and ever-widening smile that make us cheer her every move and groove. At the last moment of her audition, Tracey is selected to join the chorus of dancers on the Corny Collins Show. Tracey's addition to the chorus prompts Velma to scheme to prevent Link and Tracey from dancing together and becoming an item. And in a better-than-average subplot, Tracey's friend, Penny Pingleton (Amanda Binds) falls for Seaweed, a member of the African American musical group, much to the chagrin of her mother.

Queen Latifah portrays Motormouth Maybelle, the leader of the African American singers restricted to performing one day of the week. Despite her natural energy, it is somewhat disappointing that the charismatic actress wasn't given a little more to do in the film. Her performance is competent, but the script by Leslie Dixon fails to provide her with a single defining moment in the film.

Pfeiffer is masterful. She dresses in a variety of fancy apparel and get-ups and takes command of her scenes, looking sullen and sultry all at once. Embodying venom and villainy, Pfeiffer should have had at least one musical number that would have allowed her to put all that pent-up angst into memorable words and music.

But John Travolta's cross-dressing turn as Edna Turnblad will be what audiences are most likely to remember. Casting Travolta in the famous role previously played by the late Divine was something of a risk for Shankman and for the actor himself. Undergoing five hours of make-up each day paid off for Travolta, for he is a comedic delight here. In what may be deemed a career-saving performance, Travolta's Turnblad portrays an overly protective mother who is a sight with loads of emotion. She is the picture of matronly devotion, and yet we know there is untapped potential and something that will surely be unleashed by the film's end. In full-throttle Travolta's Turnblad leaps past her husband, played by the always-interesting Christopher Walken, dances, jumps, and gyrates in sheer delight of her freedom to look the way she wants in front of whoever she wants.

Aided by several carefully choreographed dance routines, Hairspray evolves into a celebration of transformation and liberation for Tracey and the African Americans she befriends. Hairspray may be a story about an overweight white teenager's pursuit of justice and love for herself and her African American soulmates, but the film's music, heart, and energy are enough sources of liberation and transformation for an America that may have lost the meaning of both.

Grade: B+