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Phil Allen (Alan Rickman) is a barber in Keighley, West Yorkshire,
and he and his son Brian (Josh Hartnett) run a little shop
in that town. Not far away in her own salon is Shelly (Natasha
Richardson) his ex-wife who ran off 10 years earlier with
his model Sandra (Rachel Griffiths).
The eloping happened on the eve of a championship where Phil,
the reigning No.1, was due to record an unheard of third-straight
win. Of course, he was devastated by the events and never
competed again.
Nowadays Phil is happy to be 'just a barber', but he is still
bitter about the split.
The Hairdressing Championships, however, give Shelly a chance
to reunite her family and so she decides to enter and then
try to persuade the boys and Sandra to work with her.
To throw even more interest into the mix is the fact that
Phil's arch-rival stylist gives him a hard time about being
a barber and much of the story centres on the battle within
him to put behind the hurt and teach the snotty Southern git
a lesson.
Blow Dry has a very good storyline, a great script and some
excellent actors in it.
I have to say that the use of Hartnett as a Yorkshire lad
somewhat surprised this descendant of the White Rose County.
His accent is appallingly bad, switching from Cockney to Scots
and I swear I even heard a bit of West Indian in there as
well! Yorkshire accents are not that to do for someone with
a good ear so why use a 'bloody Yank' to do one?
Watch for Warren Clarke as Keighley's mayor who is a bit
non-plussed by the competition at the start, but really gets
into it as the movie goes along. He is sensational!
If you liked The Full Monty or Brassed Off you'll find this
excellent viewing and will probably enjoy it more than either
of the aforementioned.
The trasnfer is very good and the sound very clear - almost
too clear in Hartnett's case.
Conclusion: 80% Extras: 30%
Continued: DVD
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