Military Movies - Military Times

Bubblier than a Baltimore bouffant

The very idea of John Travolta in a fat suit and 2-acre muumuu is enough to make most folks run screaming into the night.

So there’s plenty of reason for anxious trepidation in making the call to go see Travolta as Edna Turnblad in “Hairspray,” a new big-screen version of the hit Broadway musical adaptation of John Waters’ 1988 film.

But in the kind of serendipity that makes the movies so irresistible, Travolta’s very funny — as is everyone else in a first-rate cast that may make this a word-of-mouth sleeper hit.

Some aspects of the original film can never be duplicated — none more so than the casting of the late 300-pound transvestite Divine as Edna. But the satirical yet sunny, over-the-top yet purposeful tone of Waters’ original script still shines as brightly as it did 20 years ago.

The setting is blue-collar Baltimore in 1962, the era of bouffants and beehives, slick ducktails and perfectly positioned forehead curls, all held in place by enough aerosolized mist to melt the ozone layer.

High-schooler Tracy Turnblad (effervescent powerhouse Nikki Blonsky, taking up the role originally filled by Ricki Lake) sets the tone in the opening scene, bursting out the door of her family’s modest row house and greeting her city in song. (The scene features a brief, drolly appropriate cameo by Waters.)

Tracy and best pal Penny (Amanda Bynes) are obsessed with a local TV sock hop, “The Corny Collins Show,” whose host (James Marsden) leads a clique of perfectly groomed regulars known as “The Council.”

First among equals are hunky Link (Zac Efron) and blond, blue-eyed camera hog Amber (Brittany Snow), whose brittle viper of a mother, Velma (Michelle Pfeiffer), a former “Miss Baltimore Crabs,” manages the local TV station.

Velma can barely tolerate the show’s once-a-month “Negro Day,” hosted by record-shop owner Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah). But Tracy, a girl well ahead of her time, wishes “every day was Negro Day!”

So when she’s handed detention (for “inappropriate hair height”), she’s thrilled to find that nearly everyone else is black and using the detention time to perfect new dance moves. She strikes up a friendship with Maybelle’s son, Seaweed (magnetic Elijah Kelley), who teaches her steps so hot that she gets a shot as a replacement member of The Council.

Tracy’s laundress mom, Edna, so self-conscious about her weight that she hasn’t left the house since 1951, is aghast. But gentle, loving dad Wilbur (national treasure Christopher Walken), owner of the Hardy-Har Hut joke and novelty shop, urges her to go for her dreams.

Those dreams may include not only winning the annual Miss Teen Hairspray contest, but also helping to break down local color barriers through the irrepressible spirit of dance.

Dreams are what the story is all about. The setting, on the eve of a wrenching and turbulent Civil Rights Era, is no accident; the genius of Waters’ concept was in the way it wraps a serious message of tolerance — not only racial tolerance, but tolerance of anyone made to feel like an outcast or misfit — in such a fizzy, lightweight wrapper.

The film is packed with sublime moments. The best include a duet between Travolta and Walken with such lyrics as: “You’re like a stinky old cheese, getting better with age; you’re like a fatal disease, but let this fever rage ....”

Later, Pfeiffer tries to seduce an oblivious Walken, who responds to each slinky move with one of his store gags. (“Belgian chocolate animal droppings?” he offers.)

But it’s the kids who really rock the house. Cute, spunky Blonsky has the perfect early ’60s girl-group voice, and Kelly is riveting. Efron, Snow and Bynes all get to shine. And Taylor Parks as Little Inez, Seaweed’s kid sister, flat-out steals a couple of scenes.

“Hairspray” is the octoplex definition of infectious, feel-good fun. If it doesn’t make you smile, you really should see a doctor.

3 stars. Rated PG. Opens July 20.