The Big Tease

Imagine William Wallace with scissors and you get the gist of this screwy comedy from director Kevin Allen (Twin Town). Crawford MacKenzie (Craig Ferguson, a/k/a The Drew Carey Show's Mr. Wick) is a flamboyant Glasgow coiffeur whose dreams seem close to fulfillment when he's invited to Tinseltown for the World Freestyle Hair Championships. Small problem: when he arrives (with documentary crew in tow) he discovers that he was invited to watch, not participate. Undaunted, the plucky Scot wows Sean Connery's publicist, Candy Harper (Frances Fisher), with a hideous hair overhaul to get past Monique, the competition's bitchy organizer (Mary McCormack). The climactic competition is hilarious, each hairstyle more absurd than the last.

Unlike the massive 'dos, The Big Tease is as lightweight as they come. Although its take on the shallow idiocy of Hollywood is stinging, and Ferguson's portrayal of a swishy Caledonian with a deadly Connery impersonation is fabulous, Tease misses opportunities to explore the culture clash of a Scotsman in flaky LA. Then again, with his floral print silk shirts and fondness for South Pacific, Crawford MacKenzie is hardly the rugged highlander.

-- Mike Miliard