Good morning, Baltimore!

Every summer, there's always that one movie that just makes me smile. Throughout the movie. And then some after. Last year, It was Little Miss Sunshine, this year, it was Ratatouille; until Friday when another summer sweetie brought a smile to my face and a song to my heart, literally.

Hairspray was gloriously fun. Just fun :) Considering the social commentary it was trying to make, at the end of it all, its message is one of hope, innocence and a throwback to a time when anything was possible. There were few moments when my feet weren't tapping or my head wasn't bopping to the joyousness of it all. This version doesn't have the same subversive camp of the John Waters original (see here for a musical montage of some of the original scenes), but it's hard to fault it when you're so completely and utterly swept up by its ebullience and good cheer.

And the funny thing is, like Ratatouille, in the end, my heart didn't so much go out to the protagonist than to someone in a more supporting role. In Ratatouille, it was the deliciously dour Anton Ego, and in Hairspray, it's Tracy's shy mother, Edna Turnbald. You're like, ok, John Trvolta. In drag... Nah... But honestly, he does a wonderful job. About 30 minutes into the movie, and you almost forget it's a man playing a woman's role, and she becomes one of the more fully-realized character in what is essentially a musical of stock characters- heart-throb, beauty queen, underdog, etc... Edna's timidity and shame about her size comes across so sweetly and sadly sometimes that her own little triumph at the end of the movie, almost rivals her daughter's.


Which is also why I found the relationship between her and her gallant, devoted husband, Wilbur the real emotional core of the movie. Christopher Walken is fantastic as always, and in one of the high-points of the film, when they sing, "You're Timeless to Me", you forget momentarily that it's two men in a love duet. Mr. Walken looks like he was truly enjoying himself (and reprising some of his nifty footwork from the out-of-this-world Spike Jonze/Fatboy Slim video); either that or he was barely containing his laughter at John Travolta flirting with him as his wife, and there was just a honesty and genuineness to the scene that was most delightful.

Go watch Hairspray, you too will believe that a can of Ultra-Clutch Hairspray can make the world a better place :)