Cast: John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, Allison Janney, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron and Elijah Kelley
Director: Adam Shankman
Studio Synopsis: Tracy Turnblad, a big girl with big hair and an even bigger heart, has only one passion—dancing. Her dream is to appear on The Corny Collins Show, Baltimore’s hippest dance party on TV. Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) seems a natural fit for the show except for one not-so-little problem—she doesn’t fit in. Her plus-sized figure has always set her apart from the cool crowd, which she is reminded of by her loving but overly protective plus-sized mother, Edna (John Travolta). That doesn’t stop Tracy because if there is one thing that this girl knows, it’s that she was born to dance. As her father Wilbur (Christopher Walken) tells her, “Go for it! You’ve got to think big to be big.” After wowing Corny Collins (James Marsden) at her high school dance, Tracy wins a spot on his show and becomes an instant on-air sensation, much to the chagrin of the show’s reigning princess, Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow), and her scheming mother, Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer), who runs television station WYZT. Even worse for Amber is the fact that it’s not just the audience who loves the new girl in town; Amber’s sweetheart, Link Larkin (Zac Efron), seems to be smitten with Tracy’s charms as well. This dance party gets personal as a bitter feud erupts between the girls as they compete for the coveted “Miss Teenage Hairspray” crown. At school, however, a short stint in detention and raised-eyebrows caused by the budding relationship between her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) and Seaweed (Elijah Kelley) opens Tracy’s eyes to a bigger issue than the latest dance craze or the coolest hairdo—racial inequality. Throwing caution to the wind, she leads a march with Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah) to fight for integration and winds up with an arrest warrant instead. Tracy is on the lam now and goes underground—literally—to her best friend Penny’s basement. Has Tracy’s luck finally run out? Will she miss the final dance-off against Amber and forfeit the title of “Miss Hairspray,” or will she sing and dance her way out of trouble again?
Rating: PG
Running Time: 120 minutes
Official Web site: http://www.hairspraymovie.com/
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/hairspray/

The Verdict: Chicago wasn’t John Travolta’s kinda town. But Baltimore obviously charmed him off his feet. Or at least into the pumps once worn by the late, great Divine. Travolta’s biggest mistake in recent years—aside from Battlefield Earth, of course—was walking away from the role of Billy Flynn in Chicago. He’s clearly realized the errors of his ways. So now Travolta’s happily donned a fat suit and gone drag for the 1950s-era Hairspray, his first musical in more than two decades. And he couldn’t have picked a better choice than this fun and frisky adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway production, which was based on John Waters’ 1988 bawdy but not dirty look at teenage lust and racial tension in his beloved Baltimore. It takes a little time to get use to the spectacle of a boulder-sized Travolta all dolled up as Edna Turnbald, the overprotected, weight-conscious mother of dance-crazy high school student Tracy (Nikki Blonsky). Even then, there’s never a time when you look at Edna and don’t see Travolta buried beneath all that makeup. But Travolta gets by on pure energy and enthusiasm, and it’s great to see that he doesn’t lost any of the moves he wowed us with in Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Director Adam Shankman wisely adheres to the source material and keeps Travolta on a tight leash, ensuring that his larger-than-life presence doesn’t overwhelm Hairspray. But Travolta’s not the real star of Hairspray. It’s Blonsky, as the plus-size teen whose can-do spirit lands her a spot on The Corny Collins Show, forces the TV dance party to integrate its cast, and wins the heart the show’s resident hunk (High School Musical’s Zac Efron). “When I start to sing, I’m a movie star,” Blonsky belts out when we first meet Tracy. Hopefully Hairspray will do for this spunky unknown what Dreamgirls did for Jennifer Hudson. Blessed with a voice that’s as big as her bouffant is high, the rotund but light-on-her-feet Blonsky is perseverance, self-esteem and optimism personified. She also holds her own magnificently against such veteran singers and/or dancers as Travolta, a back-in-her-element Queen Latifah and a loose and limber Christopher Walken. Oh, and Travolta isn’t the only Rydell High grad to open a can of Hairspray. A sexy and seductive Michele Pfeiffer, of Grease 2 infamy, makes her long-waited—and much welcomed—comeback, vamping it as the scheming and prejudiced producer of The Corny Collins Show. Young Hollywood is well represented by the fresh-faced Efron, a wonderfully goofy Amanda Bynes, and the charismatic Elijah Kelley. In a nice nod to the original Hairspray, Waters, Jerry Stiller and Blonsky’s predecessor Ricki Lake all make cameos. Waters’ amusing appearance—you can’t miss him in the opening credits—is pretty much what would expect from the director who once filmed Divine eating dog poop. But Hairspray was Waters’ first stab at a mainstream comedy, and while it clearly was a family-friendly exercise in nostalgia, it was just as political as it was sentimental. This somewhat cleaned-up remake retains Waters’ wacky exuberance, stays true to his simple but passionate plea for racial tolerance, and proves to be even more self empowering. This Hairspray, though, sets itself apart from Waters’ original thanks to its mischievous songs—all memorable and hummable, by the way—and dazzling choreography. There’s much delight to be found in Travolta’s pas a deux with onscreen hubby Walken, Pfeiffer’s steamy attempt to seduce Walken, and just about every dance off that makes The Corny Collins Show such a conflict-ridden place to be. After 2005’s The Producers turned out to be a pale imitation of Mel Brooks’ showbiz satire, it was easy to fear the worst when it to other such musical-driven remakes. But Hairspray reveals that a musical reinterpretation of a classic comedy can work if its done with love and care. And, of course, a case or two of Ultra Clutch Hairspray to hold everything in place.
—Robert Sims

Reviews:
Boca News (3 out of 4 stars)
City Link (4 out of 5 stars)
Hollywood.com (3 out of 4 stars)
The Miami Herald (3 out of 4 stars)
Miami SunPost (3 out of 4 stars)
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
The Palm Beach Post (B)
The Sun-Sentinel (3 out of 4 stars)