Produced by Nicholas Barton, Suzanne Mackie, Peter Ettedgui Cast: Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sarah Jane Potts, Jemima Rooper, Nick Frost, Linda Bassett.
British naughtiness enlivening British traditional dullness seems to be a theme of writer Tim Firth, half of the screenplay team here with Geoff Deane of Birds of a Feather. Firth was responsible for Calendar Girls and Blackball and a similar gently acerbic humour informs Kinky Boots. Based on a true story of economic necessity for radical change hitting a shoe factory in Northampton, England, it has similar elements: a problem or dire situation inspiring out-of-the-box solution modes, and some leaps of faith and courage in ordinary people. Some fine incidental and situational comedy is firmly anchored in poignant drama, with good, funny dialogue and layered characterisation. It’s more outrageous than Calendar Girls (also based on a true story) and funnier, and it has the brilliant Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things, Four Brothers) as a drag queen called Lola. A bitter-sweet prologue shows both Lola’s early emergence and her father’s disaffection, as well as a certain fetishism with shoes, which is vamped up through the movie. Along with the main story of the shoe factory are the parallel stories of two young men dealing with paternal expectations and disappointment, and the theme of what are the qualities of a real man and true courage. Young Charlie Price’s father Harold (Robert Pugh) of Price & Sons Men’s Footwear (since 1895), has made brogues and Oxfords of excellent quality all his working life, and done his best to inculcate in his son the notion that a shoe can be the most beautiful thing in the world. When Harold dies suddenly, Charlie (Joel Edgerton) reluctantly takes over though he would rather pursue a marketing career in London. Charlie is an unsophisticated chap, apparently never having confronted market reality before, in the shape of cheap, fast-selling men’s shoes with limited durability and therefore built-in obsolescence. Modern business practice, in other words. A world away from Northampton, in sleazy Soho, attempting to off-load an over-produced line of quality brogues, he unexpectedly meets Lola, a drag queen at The Angel Club, in another steep learning curve with real life. Lola gives him a characteristically crisp and handy lesson in the difference between a drag queen and a transvestite. “A drag queen,” she says, “puts on a frock and looks like Kylie. A transvestite puts on a frock and looks like Boris Yeltsin in lipstick.” It takes a while, but when he has to lay off workers with his helpless shrug, “What can I do?” the retort of one of his more spirited factory hands, Lauren (Sarah Jane Potts), to change the product, eventually connects with the possibility of a niche market in shoes for drag queens. In the transformation of Price & Sons to the Kinky Boots Factory, Lola is lured in as a footwear designer. It’s apparently attractive enough to tempt her away from The Angel Club merely on the strength of expressing her creativity in a different way – or perhaps, somewhat tenuously, in solidarity with Charlie and his father-issues. Played by the muscular, throaty Chiwetel Ejiofor with presence and panache, Lola dazzles when in drag. In male civvies she’s less flamboyant, both naturally as the oppressed Simon and on request in the factory, but no less impacting. Able to deliver blistering ripostes to any jeering hecklers in her audience, the Lola persona radiates naughty fun and broadcasts a confidence she frequently doesn’t feel off the stage. It’s a common dichotomy of ostentatious entertainers, but especially perhaps, of drag queens. Contrasting with Lola’s flair, a solid Joel Edgerton’s somewhat dour and unimaginative Charlie is just beginning to find out what he really values and how to express it and reach for it. There’s a weird sort of chemistry there in two characters that are worlds apart in most ways, and alike in a couple, and each is able to help the other, though somewhat unevenly. Lola seems to have so much more to teach. Director Julian Jarrold has some impressive TV credentials including the memorable White Teeth (2003) demonstrating a skilful, light touch here in contrasting personalities, cultures and societal values. Cinematography by Eigil Bryld for the most part is unobtrusively excellent, but appropriately makes the shoes – and boots – sizzle. A few weeks away is the Milan shoe fair, at which footwear designers get to strut their stuff, and the factory’s chance to get known. It’s a focal point for two thirds of the film, up to which several slightly messy subplots rush headlong. The best part is the factory workers adopting that what they are creating is “two feet of tubular sex!” in various themes of shiny red leather and PVC. After an initial culture shock, a shorter theme plays out of manhood versus machismo regarding the flamboyant Lola and resident macho top dog, Don (Nick Frost), and separately with Charlie. Subplots of betrayal and true-romance round it out, with a pivotal Cinderella-slipper moment, but the main attraction is Lola and the exuberant Angels Boys show, with its defiance of all that’s conservative. Kinky Boots’ overall message seems to be that modern commercial success requires quiet, classic, quality workmanship make way for adventurous market savvy and sexy creative flair. © Avril Carruthers 8th April 2006
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