DH and I saw Hairspray last weekend and enjoyed it. As a native Baltimorian, I appreciated John Travolta's attempt at a Baltimore accent. It seems they worked certain words into the script for just that purpose. Of course, NO ONE else in the entire cast had anything near a Baltimore accent, but, that's ok.
Dh kept telling me where in Baltimore he thought the movie was filmed, and I didn't have the heart to tell him, until after it was over, that I read it was filmed in Toronto or somewhere!
They definitely got the 60's down pat though. Other than the segregation, which is a running theme throughout the movie, there are 2 scenes in particular that made me smile at how much things have changed. One scene shows a faculty room which is awash in cigarette smoke. It brought back all those gatherings of adults in my childhood where everyone was smoking.
The other scene was a quick shot of a bar. We see 2 very pregnant women smoking and drinking some sort of cocktail. Yes, those were the '60's, alright!
Oh, another eerie thing: the movie opens with a shot of a newspaper. The date: my first birthday. If it had been my actual birth day, I think I would have screamed right there in the theater.
Here's a YouTube of "Good Morning Baltimore" from the movie soundtrack.
4 comments:
My husband and I saw it yesterday -- it was so much fun, my foot hardly stopped tapping all the way through the movie! All the cast were marvellous, especially John Travolta -- even with that heavy costume, he moved like Tony Manero. Nikki Blonsky is terrific, and Queen Latifah, along with the younger members of the cast (black and white), practically burned up the screen. They did indeed get the climate of the '60s very well -- and I was rooting for Tracey because in HS I too was overweight and shut out by the "skinny minnies". A wonderful, joyful, movie, just right for summer! Glad you enjoyed it too.
I sincerely hope Nikki Blonsky's career takes off! She certainly deserves it.
Ladycub and I hope to see it soon. I never saw the John Waters original.
The reason it was shot in Toronto is simple: lower production costs. Many, if not most, TV shows and movies are filmed in Canada, with Vancouver being another popular locale.
We're going to Toronto next month. I'll let you know what we see being filmed.
Oh, that's neat!!
I know many of my favorite Britcoms use Canadian actors to play Americans for the same reason.
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