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Review #104 of 365
Film: Kinky Boots [PG-13] 107 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.75
Where Viewed: Landmark Egyptian Theatre, Seattle, WA
When 1st Seen: 24 April 2006
Time: 2:20 p.m.
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DVD | soundtrack |
Take a few parts of the films Priscilla Queen of the Desert and The Full Monty and fold in a bit of the musical “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” and you have the latest British comedy import, Kinky Boots. Based on a true story of the son of a show factory owner who suddenly finds himself no longer just the “Son” in Price & Sons Shoes, he’s the Mr. Price; and, unfortunately, father prepared him for every job in the factory save one—his own. Worse, what he doesn’t know is that his dad committed to a huge shoe order for a now-defunct department store that just went out of business forcing him to consider selling the shoe factory to a luxury flat developer just before he went and kicked the bucket leaving his poor son, Charlie Price (the charming and handsome without knowing it Joel "Ned Kelly" Edgerton) holding the bucket. So what is Charlie to do? He starts by making 15 people redundant (the cold and cruel, British English expression for laying people off). One of those he intends to fire, a young woman named Lauren played sheepishly by Sarah-Jane Potts, takes him to task and challenges his principles. Is he a quitter? In the meantime, unforeseen circumstances cross Charlie’s path with Lola’s path. Lola, a London drag queen singing sensation (Chiwetel "Four Brothers" Ejiofor) unwittingly possesses the solution to all of Charlie’s problems—he just needs to convert his stodgy old mens shoe factory into one that manufactures lovely boots capable of supporting the weight of your average drag queen or transvestite—after all, womens shoes especially those of the stiletto heel variety are not actually made for men. With that, you have the new North Hampton Kinky Boot factory.
I wanted to see this movie because the preview made it look fun and entertaining. I did not imagine that it would also give a few lessons on learning to accept change, learning to accept people that are different than yourself, and learning that sometimes you don’t choose your destiny, it chooses you. Obviously, the North Hampton factory shoe workers were going to be in for some major change as they switched from making brown oxfords to making red leather, thigh-hugger, stiletto-heeled boots. Dealing with change, in general, is tough. Changes this extreme, however, take strong leadership, coaxing, and coping. Not everyone in the factory warms up to the idea right away. It takes time and established trust. Now, picture famous London drag queen, Lola, showing up fully frocked, on the shoe factory's doorstep in North Hampton unannounced. If some of the workers’ eyebrows hadn’t been strictly affixed to their foreheads, they’d have shot up into the rafters. Well, Charlie has come explaining to do. The workers, meanwhile, have some things to learn about what it really means to be a man or a woman. Finally, in the process of trying to save the factory and the livelihood of a sizeable portion of the townspeople, Charlie will have to come to grips with his destiny and ascertain if the path he’s chosen for himself, including the woman he intends to marry, represents the right path for him at all. In the process, fittingly, Charlie will show both the best and worst of his true nature.
The film was made with the same high standard of production values Price & Sons has always demanded from its workers. Great acting, directing, choreography, set design; and, of course as you’d expect, boots and costumes. The film has a brilliant sense of humor, great eye for pagentry, and an intense sense of loyalty. The dramatic components were good, though occasionally modestly sappy. Still, the grand finale which involves a Kinky Boot runway show in Milan is not to be missed and with a scene that will stand out as a cinematic highlight for this year when Charlie must don his own wares. This is, in many ways, a typical British film in that the subject matter is a bit riskier than most American films, the story works on many emotional levels, and the result unequivocally is a film that is well worth seeing. Kinky Boots was not quite as strong overall as Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont nor On a Clear Day, but definitely a film worth seeing.
__________
Trivia: Joel Edgerton was also the voice of Jasper Morello in the Academy Award®-nominated Animated Short called The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.
I wanted to see this movie because the preview made it look fun and entertaining. I did not imagine that it would also give a few lessons on learning to accept change, learning to accept people that are different than yourself, and learning that sometimes you don’t choose your destiny, it chooses you. Obviously, the North Hampton factory shoe workers were going to be in for some major change as they switched from making brown oxfords to making red leather, thigh-hugger, stiletto-heeled boots. Dealing with change, in general, is tough. Changes this extreme, however, take strong leadership, coaxing, and coping. Not everyone in the factory warms up to the idea right away. It takes time and established trust. Now, picture famous London drag queen, Lola, showing up fully frocked, on the shoe factory's doorstep in North Hampton unannounced. If some of the workers’ eyebrows hadn’t been strictly affixed to their foreheads, they’d have shot up into the rafters. Well, Charlie has come explaining to do. The workers, meanwhile, have some things to learn about what it really means to be a man or a woman. Finally, in the process of trying to save the factory and the livelihood of a sizeable portion of the townspeople, Charlie will have to come to grips with his destiny and ascertain if the path he’s chosen for himself, including the woman he intends to marry, represents the right path for him at all. In the process, fittingly, Charlie will show both the best and worst of his true nature.
The film was made with the same high standard of production values Price & Sons has always demanded from its workers. Great acting, directing, choreography, set design; and, of course as you’d expect, boots and costumes. The film has a brilliant sense of humor, great eye for pagentry, and an intense sense of loyalty. The dramatic components were good, though occasionally modestly sappy. Still, the grand finale which involves a Kinky Boot runway show in Milan is not to be missed and with a scene that will stand out as a cinematic highlight for this year when Charlie must don his own wares. This is, in many ways, a typical British film in that the subject matter is a bit riskier than most American films, the story works on many emotional levels, and the result unequivocally is a film that is well worth seeing. Kinky Boots was not quite as strong overall as Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont nor On a Clear Day, but definitely a film worth seeing.
__________
Trivia: Joel Edgerton was also the voice of Jasper Morello in the Academy Award®-nominated Animated Short called The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello.
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Kinky Boots [DVD](2005) DVD
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