Blow Dry *** (2001, Natasha Richardson, Alan Rickman, Josh Hartnett, Bill Nighy) – Classic Movie Review 1282

Written by Simon Beaufoy, director Paddy Breathnach’s 2001 movie is an often hilarious, outrageous, warm-hearted comedy about the things everyone wants in life – love, happiness and great hair. Beaufoy wrote The Full Monty and in 2009 won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Slumdog Millionaire, also winning a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award.

Natasha Richardson stars as Shelley Allen, who runs a West Yorkshire beauty salon/hairdresser’s shop in Keighley with her domestic partner Sandra (Rachel Griffiths). Shelley is battling cancer and decides to hide her terminal prognosis but she wants to participate one last time when Keighley is chosen to host the British hairdressing championship. She asks her ex-husband Phil (Alan Rickman), who she hasn’t talked in ten years since she walked out, and her son Brian (Josh Hartnett), who operate a barbershop, to join her and Sandra as a team to enter the competition.

As the annual national hair-styling championships descend on a small town in Yorkshire, Keighley is overrun with hairdressers and corruption. The country’s top stylists aren’t expecting much from the local talent, but they didn’t count on Yorkshire barber Phil Allen (Alan Rickman), the retired golden boy of the competition circuit, entering the fray. The reigning hairdressing champion Ray Robertson blows into town taunting his rival Phil as a mere barber. But now it’s up to the locals to dazzle the out-of-towners with some hair-dos and don’ts.

There are no surprises in this girly movie, but all the players enter into the spirit of things with the greatest of gusto. Rickman has a comic field day, Richardson is touching as his wife, Bill Nighy is very funny as Rickman’s rival Ray Robertson, and so is Warren Clarke as the town’s mayor, though Hollywood star Hartnett seems uncomfy in West Yorkshire.

Rachel Leigh Cook, Heidi Klum, Rosemary Harris, Hugh Bonneville, Peter McDonald, Michael McElhatton, David Bradley, Ben Crompton and Ann Rye co-star.

The UK premiere was on 30 March 2001 in Keighley and Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where the story is set and was filmed. The release of Blow Dry was delayed when The Big Tease, a similarly themed film about the world champion hair competition, came out in 2000.

http://derekwinnert.com/the-full-monty-classic-film-review-325/

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1282

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/