Strictly Hairstyling
Category: Movies...
Posted Friday, April 16, 2004 at 10:13 PM [GMT-6]

What do you get if you take "Strictly Ballroom" and substitute:

• British accents for Aussie...
• Melting combs for judge fixing...
• Over-the-top hairdos for over-the-top costumes...
• 60s pop music for, um, 60s pop music...
• the British Hairdressing Championship for the Australian Pan Pacific Ballroom Dancing Championships?

Well, you get a movie called "Blow Dry," and if you liked "Ballroom Dancing" you'll want to give it look. This 2001 movie stars Alan Rickman ("Harry Potters," "Galaxy Quest," "Die Hard") and Josh Hartnett (with a passable Brit accent, no less), along with several others whose names you may not know but whose faces you will recognize. The plot is silly at times, manipulative at others, and overall quite predictable, but that doesn't mean it's not worth renting on DVD... if only to see how similar it is to "Strictly Ballroom" (which, for the record, is the superior movie).

["Blow Dry" is also rated R (language and brief nudity) while "Strictly Ballroom" is a "mature" PG (some of the costumes were pretty racy).]