Kinky Boots
Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sarah-Jane Potts
Directed by Julian Jarrold
Miramax 2006
107 minutes
Kinky Boots is a pleasant little British comedy DVD and sort of based on a true story. It features the very original story of a Northampton shoe plant that is close to economic death until it switches its product line to women’s shoes tailored to a man’s feet.
What makes Kinky Boots is the performance of Chiwetel Ejiofor as Lola, a drag queen with a great stage show who inspires the owner of Prices shoes to go for a whole new market. He is great as a singer, wonderful as Lola, and solid as Simon, his real identity. Ejiofor plays it straight and this is what gives this comedy its solid core.
The story, of a man inheriting a dying factory and deciding, against all odds, to save it and the workers’ jobs, is interesting but what makes this movie and gives it its energy are the scenes where Lola is performing at the club and the clash of cultures between that world and Charlie’s Northampton.
This DVD is a bit too melodramatic at times and the story kind of stutters in the middle as the romantic life of Charlie Price (Joel Edgerton) goes down the toilet and he gets a little cruel towards his greatest ally in saving the company. Although this scene sets up the Kinky Boots finale it is not quite believable.
The final scene is perhaps a bit too Hollywoodesque but it is visually interesting and fun to watch. Kinky Boots is a fun comedy available on DVD. Not a keeper but certainly something most people will not regret renting.