'Fat and old, but not boring'

| Friday September 14, 2007 00:00

The star is Tracy Turnblad (acted enthusiastically by Nikki Blonsky) who is obese, short and stout, but loves to move and dance, and is particularly thrilled by Negro music and steps. Tracy's father is Wilbur Turnblad (Christopher Walken, who steps out of his evil characterisations in many films), whose dream is a joke and magic store; he has it on an urban corner, and they all live above it.

Wilbur says: 'This heart beats only for size 60', referring to the love of his life. She is Tracy's mother Edna Turnblad (John Travolta), who is so large and she has been so embarrassed by the consequences of her untamed appetite that she has not been out of the house since 1951. 'The neighbours haven't seen me since I was size ten'. Tracy tries to tell her that 'people out there are different ... the world has changed'.

She had a dream of owning a laundromat; instead Edna takes in other people's laundry, washes and irons them in their home. Tracy sings to her 'Welcome to the '60s'. Later Edna and Wilbur sing a marvelous duet, '(You're) Timeless to Me' a moment that steals the show from Tracy and her friends. Another zenith is Queen Latifah singing, 'I know where I have been'.

 
When Tracy misses the school bus she gets a ride on a garbage truck to school. The soul of Tracy's fascination is afternoon The Corny Collins (James Marsden) Show on a local TV station, WYZT, sponsored by Hairspray (in your face, no mention of the Ozone layer and global warming).

Once a month the Corny Collins show has 'Negro Day' led by Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah, who is in her element and enjoying herself again). Maybelle's star dancer, when the kids gather in her record shop, is Little Inez (Taylor Parks). Tracy wishes everyday could be Negro day. She's ahead of her crowd and the changes that have yet to come following the Supreme Court order to desegregate schools of May 1954.

 
The TV station manager, Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer), whose daughter Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow) is the lead dancer on the Corny Collins Show is a blatant racist. She says to Motormouth Maybelle, 'Your demographic is a cleaning girt and a lawn ornament' (a racist putdown in occupation and decorations).

 
At school Tracy is sent to detention for her behaviour and discovers it is a dance hall for black kids. The lead dancer on Negro Day is Seaweed (Elijah Kelley), who when he sees Tracy dance, says 'Not bad for a white chick' (old stereotypes of racial based skills). But Tracy's crush is on Link Larkin (Zac Efron), one of the dancers on The Corny Collins Show. 'I'm a bad, bad girl who needs to be punished ... One little touch and love has knocked me out'.

 
It's her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes) who develops a shine for Seaweed. Her mother, Prudy Pingleton (Allison Janney) is a controlling religious fanatic, complete with an air raid shelter in the basement of their house (where when Tracy flees from being arrested by the police, she takes shelter).

Tracy does get her mother out of the house and convinces her to act as her Manager, and to go shopping with her at Pinky's. They end up in shimmering size 60 gowns, courtesy of Mr. Pinky (Jerry Stiller).

 
Tracy and Penny visit Motormouth Maybelle's record shop. Penny says, 'I am very pleased and scared to be here', revealing her ambivalence about race. Edna arrives to rescue her daughter, but is enticed from leaving by Maybelle's soul food. Events lead up to a march for integration, not segregation. Very few whites join the march.
Tracy and her mom are there in the front row. 

They also want to 'Let our children dance', 'Do the checkerboard' and 'TV is black and white'. When blocked by a police barrier, it is Tracy who hits an officer with her poster [an occurrence that is necessary for what happens next in the film, but in reality demonstrators were trained in non-violent direct action and such a march would have been integrated and peaceful].

There is a very American conceit in this flick: it is Negroes who must teach whites how to move; it is whites that must help Negroes in their struggles.
The climax of the film is the 1962 Miss Teenage Hairspray competition. Tracy is one of the contestants, but she is now hiding from the police.

How can she get in to the hall to dance and perhaps win the competition? The audience is now in for some surprises. Penny does get her man, and the chance to say 'I am now a checker board chick'. And Edna gets to reaffirm her bulk: 'You can't stop my happiness, I just like the way I am'.

 
'Hairspray' is 107 minutes long. The director and choreographer is Adam Shankman. It is based on the movie 'Hairspray' (1988) and the Broadway musical (2002). The script is by Leslie Dixon. The music, including some new songs, is by Marc Shaiman and wrote the lyrics with Scott Wittman.
The cinematographer is Bojan Bazelli and the editor is Michael Tronick. It was filmed on sets in Toronto, Canada.
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