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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Superficial - yet funny enough to get by with it, 18 Nov 2005
If you examine this movie with a critical eye, you'll find a pretty lightweight, formulaic plot, a lot of superficial characters, and more than one questionable performance – but the critical eye cannot gauge the comedic beauty shop atmosphere or quantify the aura Queen Latifah exudes over the whole movie. There are ample doses of humor spread throughout the entire film, and thus Beauty Shop succeeds fairly well – albeit unevenly – as a comedy. I actually watched this film because Mena Suvari is in it, and I just have to say: Mena, the magic is gone. What in the world happened to bring Mena down to the level (nay, below the level) of Alicia Silverstone? The story's pretty simple. Gina (Queen Latifah) is a hairstylist for the fabulous Jorge – until he pushes her past her breaking point and she makes a few references to certain posterior body parts and leaves. Let's just stop and talk about Jorge. Just when I was beginning to take Kevin Bacon seriously as an actor, he shows up in what has to be the most excruciatingly embarrassing role I've encountered in years. Anyway, Gina decides to open her own shop. It's rough going early on, but she and a bevy of outspoken women soon turn her dream into a reality. Oh, there are more problems later on, of course, but it doesn't take her (and her hair crack conditioner) very long to start stealing some of Jorge's best customers away from him. This is where Mena Suvari and Andie MacDowell come in – I don't think either one will want to put these roles anywhere near the top of their acting resumes. Mena is particularly disappointing, and it didn't help her or the story when her character suddenly underwent a complete personality change for seemingly no reason whatsoever toward the end. Then there's Alicia Silverstone; I don't know if she can possibly come back from this performance. She's the white girl trying to fit in with her black co-workers, and her performance just gets more and more painful to watch as time passes (and what is with that terrible Southern accent?). The performance of Little JJ as a little playa on constant booty patrol will help get you past the bad parts, though – he's hilarious. Naturally, there's a little romance thrown in the mix, but you'll spend more time trying to make Darnelle look like the Keshia Knight Pulliam you remember from The Cosby Show than worrying about whether Gina can make a love connection with the electrician living above the boutique. I know I haven't said a lot of good things about the movie, but most of the good things come from the interaction of the outspoken women inside the beauty shop. There are some real characters in that bunch, and they do keep the comedy flowing. Basically, Beauty Shop is an average movie with a slightly better than average level of comedy.
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