Review of Hairspray (2007) by Mrmoviebuff — 28 Mar 2016

It's time to get your singing lungs on as 'Hairspray' is supposed to be infectious, and jazzy. It's supposed to put a smile on your face, and leave you brimming with joy, and caring for the characters as they sing their way to stop racism, and other prejudice.

Not me, unfortunately. 'Hairspray' is an overstuffed, thinly developed, almost confusing product... I am intended to care for the characters that appear on screen, but I just don't. I see no reason whatsoever to root for the lead character that is Tracy (a very charming Nikki Blonsky), other than the fact that I admire her hate for racism, and wanting black people to get equal rights...but the rest of her character I just couldn't care for.

She seems to have the hots for a young dancer boy named Link (Zac Efron, energetic as always), but why is she so madly in love with him? Is it his hair? His eyes? His dancing skills??? He is nothing more than a blank, thin sheet of paper. That blank sheet of paper must be full of his character development, which there is none of in case you didn't understand where I was getting at.

James Marsden plays Corny Collins, the host of a very popular TV all-dance and all-singing show "The Corny Collins Show", where they are looking for young talent to sing and dance for the show's live broadcasting. Working on that show is the scheming Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer), who is more or less no different to any other blonde, female villain you've seen in the past. She has an evil laugh, her blonde hair is full of volume, she wears eye shadow and blood-red lipstick, and high heels that click so hard against the ground she walks on. Why should I find her extra intimidating?

This is not a discredit to Michelle Pfeiffer's performance as she does do an excellent job as always, but here her character just seems so...boring.

John Travolta plays Tracy's mother, Edna, dressed in drag, I can see why this may be, since the musical was originally written by John Waters, known for his gross-out content and working closely with a famous transvestite named "Divine". However, I'm not sure if this is supposed to be ironic, but Travolta's voice is too deep for a woman, I am not sure if it is supposed to be a joke, or if we are supposed to believe that he is in fact playing a woman with some manly features.

I don't know, and frankly...I just don't care after a while.

The movie is filled with musical numbers and inspired choreography, and also moves at a fast pace, but what is the story's focus? Why does it seem like there are so many unnecessary sub-plots that involve the romance between Tracy's friend Penny (Amanda Bynes) with a black teen Seaweed (Elijah Kelly)? Or take Tracy's father Wilbur (Christopher Walken) trying to win back the heart of Edna. Why were they there? And why did they need to take up so much of the movie's time? If you took them out of the movie, it wouldn't make that much of a difference, other than the run-time being a little shorter.

All in all, 'Hairspray' is a failed opportunity, with good-meaning. It obviously tries to fit in a social commentary about racism and other forms of discrimination, but fails to do it with characters that I just couldn't see myself rooting for. They all seem to be cardboard stereotypes of their own, if they wanted equality so bad, why do they act like the way that prejudice people see them? The music is good enough to keep anyone distracted, but I just wanted the end-credits to roll as soon as possible.