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| Plot Synopsis A failing shoe factory that's struggling to maintain its footing following the death of its founder finds the inspiration needed to stay in business from the most unlikely of sources in veteran British director Julian Jarrold's warmhearted tale of fancy footwear and changing times. Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) just can't seem to keep the factory afloat on his own, and with the livelihood of his entire small town hanging in the balance, he needs to come up with something truly groundbreaking. Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a sassy female impersonator with a flair for style and a great mind for design. Though on paper their inventive scheme to save the factory may sound too outrageous to be true, stranger things have happened in the world of business, and if it doesn't break them, it may just transform them into the richest footwear manufacturers in all of England. - Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Reviews DEREK ARMSTRONG All Movie Guide The latest product off the Full Monty assembly line has a title that might suggest something a little edgier. But the most edge you'll find in Kinky Boots is in lead actor Joel Edgerton's last name. Kinky Boots is disappointingly standard-issue, especially considering that it features a transvestite as one of its main characters. Actually, the bits involving Chiwetel Ejiofor's Lola bring the movie to life, perhaps because he's such a good actor and always a joy to watch. He succumbs to some of the stereotypes of how cross-dressing lounge singers have frequently been portrayed, but gives the character a subtle extra dimension that works well. However, Geoff Deane and Tim Firth write the other characters' reactions to him at both extremes of the unbelievable, either too accepting or too damning, depending on the needs of the plot at that particular juncture. And once you get past Ejiofor, there's little inspiring in the rest of the cast. Edgerton is too much of a blank slate to make a charismatic hero worth cheering on, and the appealing Sarah Jane Potts doesn't do much to liven him up. Perhaps the most difficult thing to accept is the setup itself. Saving an old-world shoe factory by refashioning it as a mass producer of footwear for transvestites? Not only is it barely credible -- how many customers could they possibly have? -- but by being so specific, it lacks the universality viewers rely on. It's so high-concept that it draws attention to its own laboriousness, becoming the prototypical Full Monty descendant to use that film's successful format: character A launches wacky idea B to try to escape financial ruin. One wonders how much longer British filmmakers will be able to tread in those particular boots. ROGER EBERT April 21, 2006 One of the gifts of movies is the way they introduce us to new actors, turning them this way and that in the light of the screen, allowing us to see the fullness of their gifts. Consider Chiwetel Ejiofor, whose first leading role was in "Dirty Pretty Things" (2002), as a Nigerian doctor reduced in London to working in a mortuary. Then came a romantic role in "Love Actually" (2003), a South African activist in "Red Dust" (2004), a space opera villain in "Serenity" (2005), and a New York detective in Spike Lee's current "Inside Man" (2006). Along the way he has worked for Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen and John Singleton (a vicious mobster in "Four Brothers" in 2005) and has done Shakespeare and The Canterbury Tales for TV. Born in London in 1974, he works easily with British, American and Nigerian accents. Now he plays a drag queen in "Kinky Boots." It is a performance all the more striking because he doesn't play any kind of drag queen I've ever seen in the movies. He plays the role not as a man pretending to be a woman, and not as a woman trapped in a man's body, and not as a parody of a woman, and not as a gay man, but as a drag queen, period: Lola, a tall, athletic performer in thigh-high red boots who rules the stage of a drag club as if she were born there, and is a pretty good singer, too. In preparing for the role, Ejiofor must have decided not to simper, not to preen, not to mince, but to belt out songs with great good humor that dares the audience to take exception. If "simper," "preen" and "mince" are stereotypical words, well, then, most drag queens, including Lola's backup dancers, are stereotypical performers. Not Lola. With "Kinky Boots," we find ourselves watching another one of those British comedies in which unconventional sex is surrounded by a conventional story. The film's other hero is Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton), whose father dies and leaves him a Northampton shoe factory that is nearly bankrupt because men aren't buying traditional dress shoes. Through a coincidence we must accept, Charlie meets Lola, who complains that women's shoes don't stand up to the weight of a full-sized man in drag. Charlie thinks maybe his factory could supply a proper pair of boots with stiletto heels for Lola, and lovingly crafts the boots himself, only to hear Lola respond: "Pease, God, tell me I have not inspired something burgundy." What does he prefer? "Red! Red!" Lola comes to Northampton to design a line of footwear, receiving a chilly reception from some of the union men in the factory, especially the gay-hating Don (Nick Frost). Don is the reigning arm-wrestling champion in a local pub, and of course, it is only a matter of time until Don and Lola are elbow to elbow in a showdown. Meanwhile, Charlie's snotty fiancee Nicola (Jemima Rooper) is a real estate agent, hoping to recycle his factory into condos, while the plucky shoe worker Lauren (Sarah-Jane Potts) believes in Charlie, Lola and the factory. Drag queens are more mainstream in British entertainment than they are in America, even if we exclude Dame Edna Everage, who seems to be in drag not as a man, not as a woman, but as a self-contained gender. The movie is in the naughty-but-nice British tradition in which characters walk on the wild side but never seem to do anything else there. If Lola, whose birth name is Simon, has sex of any kind in "Kinky Boots," it is off-screen. I was reminded of the wholesome kinkiness of "Personal Service" (1987), Terry Jones' comedy about Cynthia Payne, the "luncheon voucher madam" who treated retired gents to naughty noontime lingerie shows, heavy on whips, boots and corsets. Some of them paid with the luncheon vouchers they received as Old Age Pensioners. A recent example of this innocent genre is "Mrs. Henderson Presents," in which Dame Judi Dench runs the most wholesome strip club in Soho. "Kinky Boots" has few surprises, unless you seriously expect the factory to go bankrupt. The climax comes at the annual shoe show in Milan, where last-minute developments unfold right on schedule; having provided us with Lola, the movie is conventional in all other departments. But Ejiofor's performance as Lola shows an actor doing what not every actor can do: Taking a character bundled with stereotypes, clearing them out of the way, and finding a direct line to who the character really is. Just in the way she walks in those kinky red boots, Lola makes an argument that no words could possibly improve upon. Notes: It's pronounced Chew-i-tell Edge-o-for. "Kinky Boots" is based on a true story. Check it out at www.divine.co.uk/ (not safe for work). Awards Best British Actor (nom)-Chiwetel Ejiofor - 2005 London Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actor (nom)-Chiwetel Ejiofor - 2006 Black Reel Awards Best Actor - Comedy or Musical (nom)-Chiwetel Ejiofor - 2006 Golden Globe Film Presented- -2006 Sundance Film Festival |
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| KINKY BOOTS 2005 - UK - 106 min. - Feature - Color Director - Julian Jarrold |
| Genre / Type - Comedy, Comedy of Manners, Buddy Film Flags - Sexual Situations, Adult Humor, Adult Language, Adult Situations Keywords - inheritance, shoemaker, transvestite, cabaret-singer Themes - Unlikely Friendships, Inheritance at Stake, Gender-Bending Tones - Gentle, Warm, Quirky, Irreverent, Racy Moods - Mood Enhancers Produced by - Buena Vista International / Harbour Pictures Release - Apr 14, 2006 (USA - Limited) Released by - Miramax DVD Street Date - Sep 5, 2006 Languages - English Subtitles - French, Spanish Screen Format - Color, Widescreen Sound - Dolby Digital 5.1 Aspect Ratio - 2.40:1 (DVD) Studio - Miramax Cast Joel Edgerton -- Charlie Price Chiwetel Ejiofor -- Lola Sarah Jane Potts -- Lauren Jemima Rooper -- Nicola Linda Bassett -- Melanie Nick Frost -- Don Ewan Hooper -- George Robert Pugh -- Harold Price Geoffrey Streatfield -- Richard Bailey |
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