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Blow DryRating:
Release Date: 03 February, 2004 Retail Price: $9.99 OUR Price: $9.99 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (17 total) |
Blow Dry Reviews
Josh Hartnett's Accent Was the Best Part...
Movies have a way of making you care what they're about. With the right atmosphere, characters and background music directors can successfully make an audience care about anything they want. If someone wanted to make a drama about a hamster, and they did it well enough, they could probably make a handful of people cry over the tests and toils of their poor little hamster.
However, Paddy Breathnach's 'Blow Dry' is a good example of what not to do when attempting to make an audience care about something that they normally wouldn't. The whole movie is about hair. The idea is to make people watching care which obsessive-compulsive barber wins an English hairdressing tournament. The whole thing it just weird.
'Blow Dry' (2000) stars Natasha Richardson as Shelley, a middle-aged hairdresser with a lesbian lover, a lot of really tight clothes, and incurable cancer. She hasn't spoken to her ex-husband Phil Allen (Alan Rickman) for ten years, her son, Brian (Josh Hartnett), is embarrassed to be seen with her, and to make matters worse they all live in the same, tiny village in England.
Ultimately, 'Blow Dry' is about the regrouping of an exceptionally dysfunctional family. The whole competition aspect works as a catalyst that forces them to face both the past and the future.
The acting is basically decent. Richardson, Rickman, and Rachel Griffiths are all well suited for their roles and for Hartnett, this movie was the first step away from 'heart throb' towards serious actor, but his efforts are overshadowed by the presence of Rachel Leigh Cook. Cook plays the American daughter of the Allen's biggest rival. Her character, Christina, crams into the plot with a horrifying lack of grace that makes it seem like someone went back and added her into all the scenes after the rest of the script was finished. The only possible excuse for Cook's blunder of an acting job is the randomness of her role.
'Blow Dry' wasn't quite there as far as I'm concerned. The storyline steps into a strange territory that leaves the audience wondering if they just watched a comedy or a drama, and feeling particularly unsatisfied with the outcome. I liked parts of it, but as a whole it did nothing for me.
Alan Rickman is great!
My favorite actor is Alan Rickman and I often see his movies, so that' why I chose this movie. He plays a hairdresser, Phil, who had won the British national hairdressing championships twice in a row. However, Phil missed winning the third time because his wife Shelley (Natasha Richardson) ran off with her lover Sandra (Rachel Griffiths), who is their hairdressing model, so he retired from the front line. In this movie, his performance is excellent! The image of him raising his scissors is very cool!!
The writer (Simon Beaufoy) wrote the movie "The Full Monty", too. Both films have "bonds" as their themes. I have never seen his other works, but I think that he is skilful at describing bonds, and I like his works. Their family bond, which was patched up through the hairdressing championships moved me. Moreover, I was very impressed with the scene in which Phil talks with Sandra in bathtub on the top of a hill. There are some funny scenes. In particular, the West Yorkshire mayor is the funniest! Sometimes he made me laugh, but the championship was not so exciting. Also, all hairdressers' works are gaudy.
In this movie, Rachel Griffiths is so attractive that she's become one of my favoriteĀ@actresses, and I want to see her in other movies.
After seeing "Blow Dry", you will surely want to go to a hair salon!
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