So I stumbled upon this film after running a Netflix search on Alan Rickman and figuring, “Well, the man has played a criminal, a surgeon, a wizard, an actor, a president, a wine expert, a rancher, a sheriff, an angel, a fish… long story short, he had a long and varied career so I decided anything with Alan Rickman is at least worth a shot.
See what I mean? He’s the kind of actor that ups the quality of anything by a good 5-10%. Rickman is the kind of actor that no matter the role he’s going to bring his A-game.
Set in the English village of Keighley, the mayor is more than excited to announce the town has been selected to host the British Hairdressing Championships. Something that is met with a lukewarm reception as the small village is overrun with models, stylists, and enough hairspray to punch a hole in the ozone. Rickman plays Phil Allen, the resident barber of Keighly and a man whose days of competition are far behind him. The writers do a great job quickly crafting Allen’s reputation as he is urged to compete both for his skill and to provide a hometown representative. Competitors are even seen worrying over the prospect of facing off against Allen. The Keighley team is a broken family: Phil’s ex-wife Shelley, her partner Sandra, and Phil’s son Brian (played interestingly by Josh Hartnett).
I’m not sure if having that haircut makes him more or less believable as a stylist.
This is a story that has played out so many times. You have the ragtag squad trying to pull together stacked up against the team that makes themselves easy to hate due to a mixture of arrogance and underhanded tactics. There’s an effort to show several other teams competing, but one comes across as the token minority team with about five lines between them and the other tries to give a subplot of a love triangle between two hairdressing brothers and their model (Heidi Klum). The triangle pulls our focus away from the main teams and it feels out of place. Either make the decision to expand on several teams or none, putting a minor effort into expanding upon a third team that has no connection to the main characters makes them come across as a third wheel.
Rickman never fails to disappoint, that is a given and his performance here is solid. Phil’s past and what led him to leave the competing world clearly still have an effect on him years later and leave him reluctant to support the endeavors of his family. The big performance here though doesn’t belong to Hartnett or Rickman, but rather Natasha Richardson. Playing Phil’s ex-wife Shelley, Richardson delivers a powerful performance as she tries to bring her fractured family together. You feel like the weight of the world is own her shoulders and in a way, it is. Richardson is running the continuum of emotions here with loss, hope, despair, and pride. Carrying on with a kind of quiet strength in public, the scenes where she is in smaller groups showcase her character’s vulnerabilities.
I love how she looks ready to put someone’s head through a window.
The editing and the soundtrack are both well-executed throughout the film. The amount of quick shots and close ups of hands hide the fact that none of our main talent actually possess the skill of professional hairdressers, but wide shots showing them executing simple maneuvers gives the illusion that they are more than capable of holding their own in a competition of this manner. The quickness of the edits also makes the audience get an idea of the time crunch and pressure facing the competitors. Add in the selection of music including the songs “Lovely Day”, “Good Morning Starshine”, and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” gives the movie a lift and none of the songs seem out of place or odd selections for their scenes.
Despite everything that this film does right, the pacing and the direction just proves to be a major flaw that offsets all of the little details. “Blow Dry” isn’t sure if it wants to be a lighthearted comedy (giving us the results of styling gone wrong), a dark comedy (as characters practice their skills on cadavers), or a heavy handed drama (a cancer diagnosis comes into play). Combining the three could work, but at times the emotional switches between scenes are too drastic. The addition of two subplots only complicates things; one seems to be added for some minor form of sex appeal, the other creates some comedic value but is ended (and restarted) too abruptly to have a lasting impact.
During the first five minutes of the film I actually thought I was going to be watching a film that was the hairdressing version of “Zoolander”, something that doesn’t take itself seriously and pokes fun at how over the top and non-functional fashion can be to the average person. I wasn’t disappointed to learn I was wrong and was looking forward to giving this a go, but it just didn’t come together.
Final Verdict: Rickman and Richardson dial in strong performances, but it doesn’t save a lack of direction.
Final Score: 5.5/10
I’m done here. My brain hurts.
Film Rewind 