Rainy day movie review: John Travolta in a dress and 'bad' Michelle Pfeiffer — it's Hairspray
for pat fitzpatrick hairspray
It’s impossible to get through an Irish summer without a rainy day movie.
is on Netflix now and it’s the best movie I never watched. At least u ntil the rain arrived last weekend and my wife put it on because she reckoned the kids couldn’t play video games all day. (I didn’t mind either way.)
This is the 2007 version of the movie, based on the original in 1988, made by John Waters, which starred Ricki Lake, Debbie Harry, Divine and the guy who plays Jerry Seinfeld’s old man, Jerry Stiller.
This 2007 take stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron and John Travolta. Ricki Lake and Jerry Stiller are in there again — apparently, you can’t have a without them.
The plot reads a bit twee. A girl enters a talent competition in 1960s Baltimore to appear on a daytime TV show for teenagers. There’s a lot of singing and dancing. All the baddies, bar one, turn good at the end.
But the plot isn’t the point. It’s that the immense fun they obviously had making this show comes out in the final edit and I guarantee it will cheer up your rainy Irish summer Saturday.
Pfeiffer is an outrageously good baddie. Christopher Walken is so immense as a goodie that they should make it illegal. Zac Efron is very funny.
But in the end, it’s all about John Travolta. He plays Edna Turnblad, mother of Tracy, the girl who enters the talent competition. The first time I see Edna, I think ‘there’s John Travolta in a dress’. Five minutes later, John Travolta has disappeared and it’s just Edna, who has taken in ironing because I’d say there isn’t much money coming from her husband Wilbur’s (Christopher Walken) joke shop.
The backdrop is racism in 1960s America. But rather than focus on the dreary emptiness of the discrimination against African-Americans, hops on board with the forces of change, and they have all the best tunes, not to mention clothes.
It’s a riot of bright colours, top tunes and incredible dance scenes. I never thought I’d write the phrase 'incredible dance scenes' — I hate dancing in movies. But the routines are so sharp and witty in , with something happening in every corner of the screen, you never want to take your eyes off it.
It reaches a crescendo in a song and dance marathon that goes on longer than the American Civil War. Both my kids got up and started dancing along to it — I would have joined them except I’m old and afraid the neighbours might spot me.
is full of good energy and optimism, which is more than you can say about modern day America. It sends up the malice and daftness of segregation, with outrageously ironic bits like allowing what they call 'Negroes' on the show once a week.
If you’ve never seen this before watch it. If you have, watch it again. It’s strong enough to beat a rainy day in July.
