Hairspray 2007 Movie Review

I went to see this movie yesterday afternoon, I usually write a review and mention a couple of performers who astound me or annoy me, but today is different because every single performance in this movie blew me away, the cast are as follows newcomer Nikki Blonsky (she previously worked in an ice cream parlour) -Tracy Turnblad( a role previously played by Rickki Lake), John Travolta as her mum Edna(all latex, wigs and dresses), Christopher Walken plays Tracies joke shop owning dad Wilber, Amanda Bynes(Shes The Man) plays Penny Pingleton(Tracies best friend),James Marsden(X-Men and Superman Returns) Eiijah Kelley(Take The Lead) plays Seaweed, Zac Effron(High School Musical) plays Link Larkin, Queen Latifiah plays Motormouth Maybelle with Taylor Park as Little Inez, not forgetting Brittany Snow(John Tucker Must Die) as Amber Van Tussle and Michelle Pfieffer as Thelma Van Tussle (Previously played by Debbie Harry).

Well don’t worry that was a one off mentioning all the cast, Hairspray was a cult movie in it’s previous 1988 version and it’s various productions as the stage musical since.The story is set in 1962 Baltimore with Tracy who has a dream of dancing on the Corey Collins show, encouraged by her best friend and dad she auditions and her dream is relised, she becomes very popular and makes some new friends, namely the coloured kids on the show and school, however because Tracy doesn’t fit to the norm and makes friends with who she likes, the racist tv station manager Thelma Van Tussle does her very best to rid the station of Tracy and her coloured friends, she also wants her daughter Amber to win Miss Teenage Hairspray compertition on the dance show.Will Tracy succed and win, will Thelma get her comuppance well you will have to see yourself.
My husband grumbled about seeing this with me, he said that their was nothing wrong with the original, I did enjoy the original, but I can’t say I enjoyed Divine as Edna or Debbie Harry as Thelma in the original version.There is a couple of cameo performances from Riccki Lake the original Tracy and the John Watters the previous director plays a flasher.The cast is perfect, three newcomers to lookout for is Nikki Blonsky, Elijah Kelley and Taylor Park as Little Inez(Seaweeds dancing,little sister), the colours vivid, dancing is believable and wonderful.

The musical score is fantastic, can’t get it out of my head today, one song stood out for me and made me cry I Know Where I’ve Been sang by Queen Latfiah, that will get an Oscar without a doubt.So 10/10 for cast,performances and soundtrack.I loved it and my hubby said it was better than the original!

Review by Goldsworthy (Debs)