FILMHEADS: THE BIG TEASE

Starring: Craig Ferguson, Frances Fisher
Director: Kevin Allen
Starts today (March 24) at the AMC Quail Springs 24 Theater, Quail Springs Mall, Memorial Road

Ever since director Bill Forsyth (the auteur behind Gregory's Girl and Local Hero) abandoned Scotland for Hollywood, eccentric whimsy in the U.K. has been left in the hands of the English and the Irish. Films such as The Full Monty, Brassed Off, and Waking Ned Devine have gone on to become great international successes. For actor-writer Craig Ferguson (best known as Drew Carey's gleefully mean-spirited boss on Carey's sitcom), there has been something missing from these fables - namely a burr in the voice and a tartan skirt. Aiming to single-handedly rectify the situation, Ferguson co-wrote and stars in the deliciously offbeat new comedy, The Big Tease.

Ferguson plays Crawford Mackenzie, an ebullient Glasgow hairdresser who flies to Los Angeles with a documentary camera crew and dour cinema verite director (Chris Langham) in tow, to compete in the World Freestyling Hairdressing Championship, a sort of Super Bowl for stylists. Once in L.A., though, Crawford discovers that the World International Hairdressing Federation (WIHF), organizer of the event, only invited him to watch the contest, not compete. Having believed that WIHF would pick up his expenses as a contestant, Crawford faces serious money problems. To add insult to injury, he doesn't have the Hairdressers of America Guild (HAG) card he needs to be considered for the competition, and reigning champ Stig Ludwigssen (David Rasche), recognizing a threat when he sees one, makes it his business to destroy him.

With the dogged determination of the Energizer bunny, Crawford refuses to take "no" for an answer. Using a nebulous connection to Sean Connery (he once repaired Connery's toupee on a golf course), Crawford talks his way into high-powered publicist Candy Harper's (Frances Fisher) office. One makeover later, Candy's a true believer in Crawford. She helps him get his
HAG card (after one of the film's funnier moments, when she gets him a one-day gig styling the animal costumes at a theme park).

WIHF head Monique (Mary McCormack) still won't budge, but Crawford makes an appeal to the competition's millionaire sponsor, Warren Crockett (Charles Napier), using his connection to Connery one last time. For Crawford, the championship's Platinum Scissors Award is a destiny he won't be denied.

The Big Tease is lighter than the mousse that holds Candy's hairdo together and its good humor is hard to resist. Ferguson, whether addressing the camera directly to spout Crawford's philosophy to thedocumentary crew or dancing wildly at the disco dressed in a kilt, is an immensely appealing performer.

His Crawford is a bit daft, so obsessed with competing in the championship that he will do almost anything to get in, including, at one point, (badly) impersonating Sean Connery. Even Crawford's grandiosity is appealing - it's hard to resist a character who describes himself as, "the Red Adair of hair; only I never use explosives." A fish out of water in L.A., if only for his complete lack of sophistication and guile, Crawford's buoyant and generous personality is just the tool he needs to conquer the city. By the time he leaves to return to Glasgow, he's made friends with the powerful Candy and Monique, but also with a lowlife limo driver Eamonn (Donal Logue), who helps Crawford find a base of operations on the sleazy Sunset Strip.

Ferguson wrote the script with Sacha Gervasi. Perhaps the most surprising thing about their admittedly featherweight and fanciful screenplay is how evocative it is when it comes to the fast friendship that develops between Crawford and Candy. For any woman who has spent time  in a salon dishing with the one man who really pays attention to her hair, Crawford and Candy will feel awfully familiar.

The mockumentary aspects of The Big Tease never seem real. Neither does the competition. At times, though, the story seems real enough, because - excepting one incident that I won't go into here lest I reveal too much - the relationship between Crawford and Candy feels genuine.

The tagline for The Big Tease is "Rocky with curlers." It's an apt comparison. Like the feel-good boxing drama that made Sylvester Stallone a star, this film presents an underdog that you can't help but root for. Ferguson says he wanted to reclaim Scottish cinema from the overblown epics of Braveheart and Rob Roy, and the bleakness of Trainspotting, and present the Scotsmen he knows, in all their eccentric glory. To that end, he has succeeded beautifully. And, for the record, Ferguson looks fabulous in that kilt.

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