Starring Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sarah-Jane Potts
Directed by Julian Jarrold

= 4 stars

Kinky Boots is fun. It’s based on a historical account of how a dying shoe store found a new niche, but accuracy is thrown out in favor of flamboyance. In the end, I was willing to let the cookie-cutter plot slide because I laughed regularly.

Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) inherits the family business, a failing shoe factory. In a serendipitous accident, he meets Lola (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a singing drag queen, who inspires Charlie to redirect the company to produce “kinky boots”: bold-and-sexy shoe-wear buffed up to bear the weight of cross-dressing men. Swallow the premise, and you may enjoy the rest, which largely plays out like other British cheeky bucking the system flicks Calendar Girls or The Full Monty, including a climactic catwalk strut in Milan.

Kinky Boots is largely enjoyable due to the funny acting antics and talents of the actors, namely the singing and performing Chiwetel Ejiofor who steals this movie, and has the right amount of confidence needed to stand up to a whole factory of skeptical workers. Meanwhile, Joel Edgerton plays the straight man (no pun intended) to many of the jokes, but I really felt his pain and desperation in the face of the business failing.

What’s less appealing is Charlie’s love interest subplot - he leaves his fiance for a cute factory worker (Sarah-Jane Potts) a bit too conveniently. The film also lacks the guts to get really “kinky” - Lola has no love life, and discrimination is largely played for laughs, despite potentially serious undercurrents begging for attention.

Lastly, the film certainly never has us doubt it will all work out in the end. But I found Kinky Boots entertaining and funny enough that I didn’t much care. Just focus on Lola, enjoy the singing, and realize that as Ejiofor saves the shoe factory, he’s saving the movie as well.

IMDB: Kinky Boots
Wikipedia: Kinky Boots
Rotten Tomatoes: Kinky Boots 57%

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