Beauty Shop (2005)

Directed by: Bille Woodruff | 101 minutes | comedy | Actors: Queen Latifah, Kevin Bacon, Andie MacDowell, Alicia Silverstone, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari, Djimon Hounsou, Della Reese, Golden Brooks, Laura Hayes, Paige Hurd, Little JJ, LisaRaye, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Sherri Shepherd, Kimora Lee, Sheryl Underwood, Bryce Wilson

Hip-hop singer Queen Latifah (“Bringing Down the House”) plays single mother and hairdresser Gina Norris. A real black woman and proud of it!. When she has had another run-in with her vain and self-righteous boss Jorge (Kevin Bacon), enough is enough and she leaves. She takes Lynn (Alicia Silverstone), a girl who has her hairdressing diploma, but is only allowed to wash hair in Jorge’s salon.

Kevin Bacon (“Hollow Man,” “Mystic River”) may have one of his worst roles to date in this film. His whole character – the accent, the gestures, the text – is unbelievable and on top of that he is not funny at all. Alicia Silverstone (“Clueless”, “The Crush”) does quite nicely as the naive shampoo girl who likes to be accepted by colleagues who make things very difficult for her at first, because she is the only white girl who works Gina’s salon.

Besides Silverstone, Andie MacDowell (‘Four Weddings and a Funeral)’ is actually the only one who doesn’t completely screw up. She plays the nervous and insecure Terri, who mainly comes to Gina to save her relationship by looking nice for her husband. Another regular is the Barbie doll Joanne (Mena Suvari, ‘American Pie’), who tries to live up to all beauty ideals. In addition to this character, we also find the independent black woman who continuously quotes Oprah and the black momma who is heavily pregnant and eats all the time. We also meet the taciturn, artistic and terribly sexy neighbor and a mini gangsta rapper with a way too big mouth. In itself, the script and characters lend themselves best to hilarious situations, but they are not visible throughout the film.

The fact that Gina has to raise her daughter Vanessa (Paige Hurd) on her own could make for some touching moments. The girl misses her father, from whom she inherited her exceptional musical talent, very much. Sexy neighbor Joe (Djimon Hounsou), who how could it be? also plays the piano herself, Vanessa learns to play the piano with her heart again. Unfortunately, ‘Beauty Shop’ is not moving.

The confrontations between black and white in this film could even have made taboos open to discussion. But the related situations also remain superficial and obvious. So this movie could have been a lot more than it is now; funny, touching, confrontational Beauty Shop is not it all. Maybe that’s not so strange when the film is directed by someone who normally directs music videos. A typical case of cobbler stick to your last!.