Kinky
Boots follows in the tradition of films such as The Full Monty and Calendar Girls,
that finds rather staid and conventional people cast into desperate circumstances
in order to make ends meet. Thus we begin in industrial Northampton where the
venerable shoe manufacture Price and Sons is giving a modest send-off to young
Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) who is off to college to study marketing. Despite
the expectations of taking over the business in due time, Charlie has never developed
an interest or much of an affinity for shoe manufacture, thus his interest in
college represents more of an escape from the dreary confines of Northampton and
the factory life, both for himself and his overjoyed fiancee, Nicola (Jemima Rooper).
As
fortune would have it, Charlie has scarcely unpacked his bags when he receives
word that his father has died. Consequently he must return to Northampton and
face his destiny. Upon his first look around his father’s office he finds
documents that indicate that the business is in serious trouble and straight away
he is forced to lay off many of his father’s loyal employees. He learns that
a massive yearly order from a major wholesale distributor has been canceled and
yet his father had gone ahead and produced some 500 pair of shoes in hopes that
the order would be reinstated, or that he might sell the business and drop the
burden on the new owner. Now young Charlie is not only faced with running the
family business, but acting as it’s reluctant savior.
After
a trip to one of his Father’s loyal customers only results in unloading a
few hundred pair at cost, Charlie stops into a pub for a skin-full and upon stumbling
out of the establishment finds the course of his life forever changed. In what
he imagines to be a gallant effort to protect a damsel in distress he chases after
some drunken toughs giving a black woman a hard time, and before he knows it he’s
knocked unconscious by a wild swing of the woman’s purse. He awakes in her
flat and soon enough discovers that the damsel in distress was actually a dandy
in his dress. Enter the enormously entertaining force of nature Chiwetel Ejiofor
as the large and lovely lounge sensation, Lola.
Lola,
is a cross-dressing black man - physically imposing out of drag, but a statuesque
Amazon TKO in full costume. She is a feature performer in a cabaret show of sorts
that caters to a wild assortment of patrons - Lola lives out his/her dreams on
stage before adoring crowds with her signature song from Damn Yankees “What
Lola Wants, Lola Gets.” Though the two men couldn’t be any more different,
they recognize in each other a common bond. Both are putting on brave faces for
the world to see, but deep down both, in one way or another, each feels like a
fraud. Yet destiny is at work as Lola begins to complain of her sore feet.
Kinky
Boots, as Adam pointed out to me as we watched, is a classic example of a film
that despite it’s obvious and predictable plotline, still manages to win
you over on the strength of it’s performances. Ejiofor gave one of the great
performances of the century in Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things, and by
accepting the role of Lola took a calculated risk that pays off marvelously and
will undoubtedly see his stock rise. Though Edgerton has played high profile roles
in the Star Wars Revenge of the Sith and has received several awards in his native
Australia, for my money he made his mark as a wannabe concert promoter in The
Night We Called It A Day, playing opposite Dennis Hopper as Frank Sinatra. His
long blonde-haired party animal in that picture bears little resemblance to his
restrained take as a conservative Briton, whom with his studied buttoned-down
personae bears an undeniable resemblance to Conan O’Brien.
As
Charlie begins to realize that men who dress up as women must force their fat,
unfeminine feet into the petite footwear of women, a light blinks on in his sore
head. And the two of them brainstorm the tenability of producing racy footwear
for this niche market of men who get their jollies dressing up as women. Giving
the notion even more credence is the fact that Kinky Boots is quite accurately
based on a true story, that made it’s way around the news markets in Great
Britain - catching the attention of the film-makers responsible for turning another
unlikely British story into a hit movie - Calendar Girl.
Though
from this point on (including a twist in Price’s romantic fortunes) it’s
pretty plain to see where the film is headed, the story is smartly parsed out
with enough heart and sole as well as sweetness and subtlety, that it comes off
as an unabashed crowd-pleaser. Nick Frost who put a lot of the funny in Shaun
of the Dead, plays a factory worker with a bit of a chip on his shoulder toward
his new boss. But in a well-conceived scene Ejiafor is able to sort him out and
Frost brings a good bit his comedic stylings to the film, as do many of the character
actors that populate the factory including the ever-reliable Linda Bassett and
Ewan Hooper.
On
as Charlie’s own personal Jiminy Cricket is the pixie-esque cutie Sarah-Jane
Potts, who doesn’t let the King of the Kinky Boot get away with a thing and
as a result manages to gain his respect and eventually sort out his sore heart.
In order to create the kind of demand for their product that would be sufficient
to save the factory and the jobs of those who’ve spent their adult lives
working there, they must put together a snappy line of wears and give them a proper
run up the flagpole on the catwalks of Milan. This sequence offers a few dramatic
surprises, but ultimately we know we’re on our way to a happy ending. Still
there is much along the way (including a good bit of soul-searching on the part
of both Charlie and Lola) to give the film enough poignant substance to make it
more than a mere Discovery channel curiosity. I’m giving it a B and any miserable
sod who gives it less needs a kinky boot right up the backside.
