Blow Dry

An English barber (Alan Rickman), his ex-wife (Natasha Richardson), their son (Josh Hartnett) and the ex-wife’s lover (Rachel Griffiths) join forces—with understandable misgivings—to compete when the British Hairdressing Championship comes to their town. This odd, halfhearted comedy has no writing credit, saying only “based on a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy.” Word is that Beaufoy (The Full Monty) tried to distance himself and, judging from the finished product, it’s not hard to see why. The film’s tone wavers uncertainly from soap opera to farce to low camp, and director Paddy Breathnach plods through it all like a tired, blinkered plowhorse. The actors give it their best, but they’re at sea in a patchwork script. The comb-and-scissors bit was done much better in last year’s The Big Tease.