Time Out says
The patronage of two uptight customers (Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari) allows Gina and gang to evangelise about their preference for eatin’ and lovin’ over plastic surgery and cheating men. This works on the premise that sex, hair and food are topics to unite all women, and makes enough girl power gags about them to succeed (‘I’d do him in a heartbeat if I wasn’t so fertile,’ asides a pregnant stylist).
That said, there are characters who grate. The cocky adolescent boy who films women as they sashay down the street is downright sinister, and Alfre Woodard and Djimon Hounsou sink to career lows in their portrayals of a poetry-spouting exhibitionist and an artistic upstairs neighbour (Hounsou’s character appears to have wandered in off the ‘In America’ set, sans Oscar nomination). Both namecheck their tribal roots, but their reverent cultural monologues feel staged (‘Shout out to Africa!’ is Hounsou’s parting line). ‘Beauty Shop’ fails nearly as often as it succeeds, but it does so with enough cheerful charm to win over fans of the genre.
Release Details
- Rated:12A
- Release date:Friday 22 April 2005
- Duration:105 mins
Cast and crew
- Director:Bille Woodruff
- Cast:
- Queen Latifah
- Paige Hurd
- Laura Hayes
- Keshia Knight Pulliam
- Kevin Bacon
- Mena Suvari
- Andie MacDowell
- Alicia Silverstone
- Alfre Woodard
- Djimon Hounsou
- Bryce Wilson
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