There's nothing wrong with Kinky Boots, but cinema-goers who have seen Brassed Off, The Full Monty and Calendar Girls will have not so much a sense of deja vu as a feeling of omniscience. It is as formulaic as a Big Mac and, although it works as a feelgood movie, viewers in search of originality will be left with the tongue-scratching taste of junk food.
In this variation, the provincial townspeople who defy their natural inhibition to triumph against the odds are a set of factory workers in Northampton, England. The factory is faced with closure until the owner (Joel Edgerton) is inspired by a drag queen (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to make pairs of the titular kinky boots for the transvestite market.
Will the workers take to the new plan? Will the owner be able to pull off a shoe fashion show in Milan? Will all apparently be lost due to personal differences but somehow come right in the end? Well, take a wild stab in the dark.
Still, Edgerton is quietly effective and Ejiofor is very amusing and occasionally touching as the man in the frock. The supporting cast are fine too, but there is nothing exceptional about Kinky Boots that overcomes its clockwork predictability. Indeed, although the film is good-for-people-who-like-this-sort-of-thing, these people will already have seen it done better in all the films named above. Edgerton, while nicely understated, isn't quite as watchable as Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor or Helen Mirren.
If you think you'll like it, you will, but this is by no means a must-see.
In this variation, the provincial townspeople who defy their natural inhibition to triumph against the odds are a set of factory workers in Northampton, England. The factory is faced with closure until the owner (Joel Edgerton) is inspired by a drag queen (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to make pairs of the titular kinky boots for the transvestite market.
Will the workers take to the new plan? Will the owner be able to pull off a shoe fashion show in Milan? Will all apparently be lost due to personal differences but somehow come right in the end? Well, take a wild stab in the dark.
Still, Edgerton is quietly effective and Ejiofor is very amusing and occasionally touching as the man in the frock. The supporting cast are fine too, but there is nothing exceptional about Kinky Boots that overcomes its clockwork predictability. Indeed, although the film is good-for-people-who-like-this-sort-of-thing, these people will already have seen it done better in all the films named above. Edgerton, while nicely understated, isn't quite as watchable as Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor or Helen Mirren.
If you think you'll like it, you will, but this is by no means a must-see.