Wow.

I expected to have fun in this movie. I didn't expect to be so damn impressed on nearly every level.

The story of acceptance was born in the original John Waters film in 1988, but I wasn't familiar with the musical score from the 2003 stage musical. Nor did I know what to expect from director Adam Shankman - though he was the choreographer for Buffy's "Once More with Feeling", his feature film directorial career has been filled with mediocre comedies.

The cast was more promising: John Travolta, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, James Marsden, Queen Latifah, Allison Janney - even Zac Efron. I knew they could all sing and dance. But how would Travolta handle playing a woman? How would they play against less seasoned performers like lead Nikki Blonsky and Amanda Bynes?

And how Baltimore would it feel having been shot mostly in Toronto?

Well...

It's a musical that doesn't apologise for being a musical. But it's directed like a feature film - it does not feel stage bound at all. In fact, the way certain sequences are staged, Shankman has found a way to make this musical based on the stage show based on the original film feel like it was always supposed to be this way. It's difficult for me to imagine how some of this would have been staged, actually.

There are changes made to both its stage and motion picture source material, but the changes raise the Hairspray experience to the next level. Story changes, contextual adjustments, a couple of songs dropped. I can't really compare this film to its predecessors, having not seen it on stage - and having not seen John Waters' film in years. In fact, I'd forgotten much of the racial segregation story - a nice surprise that this formed much of the dramatic backbone of a film that could have been completely light and fluffy.

But it's much more than that. We have a complex, multi-layered story of acceptance - branching from self-acceptance, to surface acceptance on a dance show, to accepting racial integration.

Adam Shankman knows how to stage a musical number, but he has a deft touch with actors as well. Not one of the actors can be faulted, really. Some, though, must be acknowledged for their incredible input. James Marsden completely captures Corny Collins' cheesey presenter role with a wicked streak. Queen Latifah absolutely owns her role - taking control of the film with "Come So Far (So Far to Go)". Nikki Blonsky hits her screen debut out of the park. And Michelle Pfeiffer is delightfully wicked.

However... and I think you know what's coming...

John Travolta is a revelation. His work here is one of his great moments. It may never be as iconic as Danny Zuko, but it's a far more subtle, complicated, multi-layered character and performance. Once you get used to John Travolta in the fat suit and the make-up (and it doesn't take long), there's no question he was perfect for the role. He is an introverted Baltimore housewife from 1960 who hasn't left the house since 1951 - and her transformation beyond that is one of the great strengths of the film. This isn't the over-acting of Divine nor the camp factor of Harvey Feirstein on stage - it's one of the great movie musical performances.

Which is fitting, because Adam Shankman's Hairspray is one of the great movie musicals.