HAIRSPRAY

3 Stars – Wholesome

“Hairspray” is a wacky and satirical look at the life of a pudgy Tracy Turnblad (played by Nikki Blonsky who had never been in a movie before).  Tracy’s life dream is to dance on the Corny Collins Show, a local TV program patterned after American Bandstand.  Everyone on the show, naturally sponsored by a hairspray company, has had their lives plastered into social status categories.

For anyone who lived through their teenage years in the early 1960’s, you know that layers and layers of hairspray held a young woman or man’s hair in place.  From the perspective of today, those hairdos look like they were plastered on your head. 

“Hairspray,” which is set in Baltimore in 1962, not only takes on the superficial standards of youth, beauty, and being in the “right crowd,” but it dives into the more serious questions of race relations in this still turbulent early civil rights era.  Four days a week, the Corny Collins show features only white teenagers, and one day a week is “Negro Day.”  The host of Negro Day is Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah), the owner of a record store from “the other side of the tracks.”

Tracy longs to fall in love with the star of the Corny Collins Show, local teenage heartthrob Link Larkin (Zac Efron). to the dismay of her mother Edna (John Travolta).  While the premise may be to satisfy a teenage fantasy, Tracy’s actions result in setting a number of people free from being captive to their social status, their fear of ridicule for not having the perfect body, and their racial prejudice.

Tracy has an innocence that does not cause her to hold back her feelings.  On the other hand, her mother Edna is so overweight that she hasn’t been out of the house in over a decade, fearing the opinions of others.  Tracy’s best friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) has the same teenage fantasies, but like most people she conforms to the norms of her culture and is afraid that her best friend will be rejected for her weight.

Tracy knows who she is and plows ahead.  First, she has all the dance moves down perfectly.  Second, she doesn’t see herself as overweight, but rather as a force with which to be reckoned.  Finally, she thinks the kids on “Negro Day” can out dance the regulars on the show.

Every inch of this story is a hilarious spoof, but there are parts that tug at your emotions.  Seeing John Travolta play Edna takes the viewer to a point of suspended belief where you actually see beyond the gag and empathize with the plight of an overweight and concerned parent.  The exaggerated portrayals of black singers resembling The Supremes causes a laugh, but the views of humble black workers marching and singing to God for freedom harks back to the emotional days of the civil rights movement.

In the end, of course, every good person wins as Link Larkin falls in love with Tracy and every bigot falls on their hairdo.  The scene of Tracy’s mother dancing at the end of the show is worth the price of admission.

What takes “Hairspray” from slapstick comedy to something deeper is its portrayal of love in a purer form.  Those considered by society to be “poor in social stature” ended up becoming the standards for “pure in heart.”  We may have come a long way from Baltimore in 1962, but we still need that change in standards today.

 

Discussion:      

1.       In the naïveté of the 60’s it was assumed that change would inevitably occur.  Do you believe racial and social injustice will inevitably get better or does it require our concerted effort?

 

2.       The power of love and acceptance over prejudice and manipulation is the theme of the film.  Do you experience love and acceptance having more or less power than prejudice and manipulation in real life?  Why do you answer as you do?

 

3.       The interracial dating and marriage that was so forbidden in American culture is now being accepted more readily.  Why do you believe this is true?  What do you think will be the result of such a cultural change within our nation? 

 

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Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary.  Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. For more reviews: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.