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Blow Dry

2001, Movie, R, 90 mins

Blow Dry: Review

BLOW DRY
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Like THE BIG TEASE (2000), this U.K. comedy/drama gets its easy laughs from the baroque excesses of competitive hairdressing. But for its warm and gooey center, it reaches for the mix of charming eccentricity and stiff upper lip-dom that powered sentimental hits like BRASSED OFF, WAKING NED DEVINE, SAVING GRACE and THE FULL MONTY (an earlier effort by scripter Simon Beaufoy). There's not much going on in the small Yorkshire town of Keighley until the British National Hairdressing Championship comes to town — in a swirl of scissors and glittering coiffures. At first, however, it appears Keighley itself won't be represented in competition, even though not one, but two world-class stylists live in town. When Phil and Shelley Allen (Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson) were married, they were king and queen of the competitive haircutting circuit, but their professional association ended when Shelley fell in love with Sandra (Rachel Griffiths), their model. Shelley and Sandra opened their own salon, while the embittered Phil, who kept their son Brian, retreated into a life of short-back-and-sides barbering. Ten years later, no one's speaking to anyone and Shelley, who's been battling cancer, has had a relapse that she's bravely hiding from the world. In the name of sorting out her personal life, Shelley decides to enter the competition and try to persuade Phil and Brian (Josh Hartnett), who's inherited his dad's scissoring kills, to join her. Her campaign is inadvertently helped by the arrival of Ray Robertson (Bill Nighy), an old hairdressing rival willing to lie, cheat and steal to get the coveted Silver Scissors. Subplot-wise, he's accompanied by his lovely daughter Christine (Rachael Leigh Cook), on holiday from America and ripe for romance with Brian. The result is formulaic, shamelessly manipulative and surprisingly watchable: The cast is loaded with pros (though Hartnett, playing a Yorkshire native, is on shaky accent ground) who never condescend to the material. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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